May 7, 2019
The Creative Destruction Lab has opened applications for its 2019-20 cohort, at its Atlantic Canadian pod and other locations across Canada and in New York and Oxford, England.
Started at the University of Toronto, the Creative Destruction Lab is a seed-stage program for scalable startups whose technology is based on science.
The applications can be found here and are open until Aug. 12.
The CDL starts cohorts in each location with a few dozen teams, who attend a one- or two-day mentoring session to receive a set of milestones from mentors. They’re then sent away to work on these tasks. When the cohort convenes again about two months later, teams who missed their milestones are asked to leave. CDL repeats the process several times, so each cohort ends up with a core of graduates.
CDL-Atlantic is just wrapping up its second cohort, and accepts companies from a broad range of sectors though it has a special emphasis on ocean tech, cleantech and agritech.
It has quickly established itself as the largest source of angel funding in the region, as its “fellows” actively invest in the more successful entrants. Companies such as Bereda Training, Harbr, Mysa and Motryx (formerly Maritime bioLoggers) have raised capital from CDL fellows.
As well as CDL-Atlantic, startups can apply to other locations that offer specialization in their particular sector. For example, the Montreal program has a special focus on artificial intelligence and data science, while Vancouver specializes in health technology.
Gillian McCrae, the Venture Manager at CDL-Atlantic, said anyone with questions can contact her at [email protected] or her colleague Jeehan Javed at [email protected]