Flagship Ventures Kicks-off its VentureLabs™ Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 20, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Flagship Ventures, a leading venture capital and venture creation firm focused on healthcare and sustainability, announced the start of its fifth VentureLabs™ Entrepreneurial Fellowship Program, a unique opportunity for top graduate students to practice entrepreneuring in the pursuit of world changing venture opportunities.

Building on the success of last year's program, eight talented fellows were selected to work hand-in-hand with the VentureLabs team this summer to explore disruptive opportunities in the therapeutics, health technologies, sustainability and consumer spaces. "The team at VentureLabs has been perfecting and applying the discipline of entrepreneuring to the venture creation process for over a decade," said Noubar Afeyan, Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Flagship Ventures. "Our Fellowship Program serves not only to scale our venture creation efforts, but also as a means to share our method of realizing entrepreneurial innovation, and to cultivate relationships with really talented and driven individuals."

The eight fellows include engineers and scientists pursuing PhDs, MBAs and Master's degrees with entrepreneurial and technical experience, ideal for solving the complex scientific and business problems that are explored as part of the summer fellowship.  Fellows will participate in the VentureLabs process of parallel entrepreneurship and venture creation.  "Our mission with the Fellowship Program is to bring together exceptional innovators from varied backgrounds to collaborate with our team in nucleating great companies, providing the fellows with a stimulating and challenging experience unlike any other," said Harry Wilcox, Chief Operating Officer and General Partner of Flagship Ventures.

Hundreds of applicants applied to the Fellowship Program from universities around the world. These fellows were carefully selected from top graduate programs and represent diverse technical and business backgrounds, skills and interests.

About Flagship Ventures

Realizing entrepreneurial innovation is the mission of Flagship Ventures. The firm operates through two synergistic units: VentureLabs™ which invents and launches transformative companies, and Venture Capital, which finances and develops innovative, early-stage companies. Founded in 2000, and based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Flagship Ventures manages over $900 million in capital. The Flagship team is active in three principal business sectors: therapeutics, health technologies and sustainability/clean technology. Past successful Flagship portfolio companies include:  Accuri Cytometers (acquired by Becton, Dickinson and Company), Adnexus (acquired by Bristol-Myers Squibb), Hypnion (acquired by Eli Lilly), AVEO (NASDAQ: AVEO), BG Medicine (NASDAQ: BGMD), Tetraphase (NASDAQ: TTPH), Receptos (NASDAQ: RCPT) and Morphotek (acquired by Eisai).  Additional notable portfolio companies include:  AeroDesigns, Affinnova, Agios, BIND Therapeutics, Joule Unlimited, Quanterix, and Moderna Therapeutics.  For more information, please visit www.flagshipventures.com.

Contact:

For Flagship Ventures:   Rachel Brenner
Ruder Finn
212.715.1623
[email protected]

SOURCE Flagship Ventures