June 13, 2021 – To say that Creative Destruction Lab’s (CDL) achievements this year were unexpected doesn’t quite cover it.
The non-profit program for seed-stage, science and tech-based startups was launched in 2012 with the goal of facilitating $50 million (CAD) in equity value creation over five years. This year, the value created by participating ventures has exceeded $12 billion. CDL also launched a new site in Seattle, which is set to accept its first cohort of companies for October 2021; created a spin-off organization to do rapid COVID-19 screening at workplaces; and shifted to an entirely online model, including at three new sites in Paris, Atlanta, and Wisconsin.
CDL will finish the year with a fittingly unique celebration. From June 14 to 18, graduating ventures will meet for a Super Session to showcase their breakthroughs, finalize early-stage investment and network with top technical and business talent. It’s the first time a CDL Super Session will be held virtually.
The Super Session will feature a huge range of talent from diverse fields around the world. Companies from all nine CDL sites — Toronto, Oxford, Paris, Atlanta, Wisconsin, Atlantic, Montreal, Rockies and Vancouver — will be there. Every stream from the 2020/21 Program Year will be represented, including companies from CDL’s programs in Health, AI, Quantum, Matter, Oceans, Space, Prime (the general stream), Climate, Energy, Agriculture, Risk, Commerce, Supply Chain and Blockchain.
Participants will be briefed by top industry leaders:
- Ali Tehrani, president and CEO of Zymeworks;
- Andrew Thompson, former CEO of Proteus Digital Health;
- Sacha Mann, former CEO of Biosys UK Limited and entrepreneur in residence at Novateur Ventures;
- Yoshua Bengio, a world-leading expert on deep learning and bestselling author;
- Ingmar Posner, who leads the Applied Artificial Intelligence Lab (A2I) at Oxford University;
- Roger Melko, associate faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Canada Research Chair in Computational Quantum Many-Body Physics;
- Sarah Applebaum, partner at Pangaea Ventures;
- Nathan Kundtz, CEO of Rendered.AI and former CEO and CTO at Kymeta;
- Christine Tovee, a consultant at CATx Technology who trained astronauts for NASA’s Neurolab Space Shuttle mission through her research work at MIT’s Man-Vehicle Lab;
- Olivier Raybaud, co-founder and managing partner of Blue Oceans Partners;
- Alison Sunstrum, founder and CEO of CNSRV-X Inc. and venture partner at Builders VC;
- Gaetan Bonhomme, a partner at Breakthrough Energy and former co-founder and CTO of Kurion;
- Joy Romero, vice president of technology and innovation at Canadian Natural Resources Limited;
- Ethan Buchman, a co-founder of Cosmos and CEO of Informal Systems;
- Carolyn A. Wilkins, the former senior deputy governor of the Bank of Canada;
- Loren Padelford, the founder and general manager at Shopify Plus;
- Louis Roy, the CEO of Optel Group LLC.
Mentors will also moderate discussions about specific ventures and what they should focus on to increase their scalability.
The Super Session is all about five days of learning, discussion and celebration, after a year that was truly like no other.
Media Contact
Amarpreet Kaur
Associate Director, Creative Destruction Lab
amarpreet.kaur@creativedestructionlab.com
