Yale focuses startup efforts in new Yale Ventures platform

Photo | Contributed Josh Geballe is set to lead Yale Ventures, the university's new entrepreneurship platform.

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By Liese Klein

All of Yale University’s business-building efforts are set to come together and grow under the new “Yale Ventures” umbrella, the university announced Tuesday.

Josh Geballe, a former top aide to Gov. Ned Lamont, will lead the new organization and shepherd its growth.

“Yale Ventures intends to play a key role in making New Haven a globally recognized hub of innovation, and this is the ideal time to undergo this exciting transformation,” Geballe said.

Geballe left the governor’s office earlier this year to lead Yale’s entrepreneurial efforts.

Yale Ventures will have four focus areas: Intellectual property and licensing services, innovation training and startups, corporate partnerships, and “Innovation Community,” an effort to build the overall entrepreneurial ecosystem at Yale and in Greater New Haven.

The university’s historic startup generator, the Office of Cooperative Research, will be absorbed into Yale Ventures.

Yale said it will pump new investments into the platform, using income from its record-breaking $42.3 billion endowment, which netted a 40.3% return for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021.

More startup action on the Ivy League campus will benefit New Haven, the university said in a statement, citing Yale’s tenancy at the planned biotech hub at 101 College Street in New Haven and its support of bioscience incubator BioLabs.

Yale spinouts including Alexion (now owned by AstraZeneca) and Arvinas are also expanding in the city.

Yale President Peter Salovey said, “We are wholly committed to the integrative approach and ambitious vision of Yale Ventures, and I’m excited to see it realized.”

Contact Liese Klein at lklein@newhavenbiz.com.