Canaan Partners with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute to Launch the Canaan-Yale Venture Fellowship Program

WESTPORT, Conn., Sept. 22, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Canaan Partners, a multi-billion dollar venture capital firm, today announced that it is partnering with the Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI) to establish fellowships that will foster entrepreneurship skills for Yale University students who are interested in healthcare.

YEI is collaborating with Canaan Partners to offer the highly select Canaan-Yale Fellowships to eight Yale students per academic year. These students will be divided into two multidisciplinary teams to provide strategy and leadership to Canaan and Canaan startup companies in the healthcare sector.

"To have the world class team at Canaan working closely with the top student talent from Yale - across business, medicine and biosciences – is an incredible opportunity for these students, who will learn first-hand about procuring venture capital dollars and the complex world of commercializing life science technology," said Erika Smith, Deputy Director of YEI.

"We are excited to partner with one of the premier scientific universities in the world and its students," said Tim Shannon, MD, general partner at Canaan Partners. "While it's a great chance for them to gain real-world experience from a global, dynamic venture capital firm, it's also a great opportunity for us at Canaan to collaborate with these entrepreneurial scholars, do our part to help mold the leaders and innovators of tomorrow, and work together to make the best ideas realities."

Dr. Shannon added, "This program strengthens our ties with our neighbor, Yale University, a world leader in scientific discovery and innovation."

About Canaan Partners

For nearly 30 years, Canaan Partners has been investing in entrepreneurs with visionary ideas to improve the way we live our lives.  With offices in Westport, Connecticut, New York City and Menlo, Park California, over $4.2 billion under management and more than 160 exits to date, Canaan has funded some of the world's most innovative companies in both technology and healthcare. For more information, visit us at www.canaan.com and follow us on Twitter @canaanpartners.

About Yale Entrepreneurial Institute (YEI)

The Yale Entrepreneurial Institute is a university department that helps entrepreneurs and innovators at Yale start scalable new ventures. YEI offers three dedicated programs for accelerating ventures at Yale from early-stage conception to investable startup: the Venture Creation Program, the YEI Fellowship and the YEI Innovation Fund, which provides $100,000 in pre-seed funding. YEI is dedicated to fostering entrepreneurship across all schools at Yale and providing opportunities for students and faculty to test their ideas, develop them with expert guidance and launch companies that can make an impact in their respective industries. YEI resources include a 150+ Mentor Network; resident entrepreneurs; access to in-kind services from corporate partners in legal, accounting, financial, IP, communications and branding; connections to the angel and venture community; and connections to campus and community entrepreneurship partners. There are currently 80 active YEI companies that have raised over $135 million in funding and created over 350 jobs. For more information, visit us at http://yei.yale.edu/ and follow us on Twitter @YEITWEETS.

SOURCE Canaan Partners