Venture capital firm Flagship Ventures signed strategic innovation partnership agreements with pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, nutritional therapy developer Nestlé Health Science and agribusiness Bayer CropScience on Tuesday to support its VentureLabs incubator.
The partnership has been formalised following the three companies’ participation in Flagship’s oversubscribed $537m Flagship Ventures Fund V, which closed in March 2015. Flagship has not disclosed whether the newly signed partnership agreements will involve additional funding.
AstraZeneca’s, Nestlé’s and Bayer’s support will enable VentureLabs to leverage their market shares and increase the incubator’s early-stage VC funding activities.
Each corporate partner will gain access to the incubator’s startups and will assist Flagship in identifying and developing new startups relevant to their respective sectors. Part of the Flagship Ventures Fund V will be used to invest in these startups.
The three corporate partners also retain the right to invest directly in the startups, enter licensing agreements, set up joint ventures or make acquisitions.
Noubar Afeyan, senior managing partner and chief executive of Flagship, said: “For 15 years, Flagship has uniquely pursued a hybrid model of venture creation and investment to fulfil its mission of realising entrepreneurial innovation.
“The strategic innovation partnerships we have formed with these leading companies will enable us to accelerate our efforts, translate more scientific discoveries into game-changing companies that disrupt existing markets, and make our own breakthrough innovations to tackle some of the world’s most pressing challenges.”