TORONTO, CANADA – Today, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) – a not-for-profit seed-stage startup program – announces that it will be a Founding Partner of the Libra Association. CDL is keen to contribute to the success of the Libra initiative as the sole Canadian organization and academic institution in the Libra Association at present.
The Libra Association will create Libra, a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that can empower billions of people. Libra will be built on a secure, scalable, and reliable blockchain; and it will be backed by a reserve of assets designed to give it intrinsic value. The Libra Association will govern the infrastructure and manage and evolve this new ecosystem. Libra will enable developers and businesses to build inclusive new financial service products for people around the world.
At this time, CDL is the sole academic Founding Partner of the Libra Association. The initial group of organizations that will work together on finalizing the association’s charter include:
- Payments: Mastercard, PayPal, PayU (Naspers’ fintech arm), Stripe, Visa
- Technology and marketplaces: Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook/Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, Mercado Pago, Spotify Technology S.A., Uber Technologies, Inc.
- Telecommunications: Iliad, Vodafone Group
- Blockchain: Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited
- Venture Capital: Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures
- Nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions: Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking
Libra will extend CDL’s Blockchain Stream – a program developed to create startups that exploit blockchain technologies that enable novel contract design and innovative market design.
As a Founding Partner, CDL will contribute to the creation of the Libra Association, promoting activities that enhance startup innovation worldwide.
Read more about Libra, the Libra Blockchain, and the Libra Association here. Read more about Libra at CDL here.
Quotes
While there is an immediate opportunity for startups going through our program — especially our Blockchain stream — because the CDL community is close to the process, the real opportunity is for all startups, not only those at CDL, and it is that potential that is our focus. In creating better startup ecosystems we will be fulfilling our mission.
Joshua Gans, Professor, University of Toronto and Chief Economist, Creative Destruction Lab
In 2018, Creative Destruction Lab launched the world’s first program for helping entrepreneurs design and launch crypto-based companies predicated on the economic features of blockchain that enable novel contract and market design. We are particularly enthusiastic about the potential of Libra’s programming language, Move. Thoughtfully designed smart contracts operating on a widely accessible and stable global currency platform will unlock never-seen-before gains from trade, benefiting society at a meaningful scale.
Ajay Agrawal, Professor, University of Toronto and Founder, Creative Destruction Lab
About Creative Destruction Lab
Creative Destruction Lab is a not-for-profit seed-stage program for massively scalable, science-based companies. Its nine-month program pairs founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors to set focused, measurable objectives with the goal of maximizing equity-value creation. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, the program has now expanded with locations in Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, and Oxford. Since its inception in 2012, companies that have participated in the CDL program have created over $4.2 billion in equity value. CDL Alumni include North (Waterloo), Atomwise (San Francisco), Deep Genomics (Toronto), Automat (Montreal), Kyndi (Palo Alto), and Heuritech (Paris).
About Libra
Libra is a simple global currency and financial infrastructure that can empower billions of people. Libra will be built on a secure, scalable, and reliable blockchain. This blockchain will be open for developers and businesses to build inclusive new financial service products for people all around the world. The currency will be backed by a reserve of real assets, providing low volatility, wide global acceptance, and fungibility. This new ecosystem, set to launch in 2020, will be governed by the independent Libra Association, which will be responsible for facilitating the development of the open-source Libra Blockchain and managing the Libra Reserve. The association is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Members of the Libra Association will consist of geographically distributed and diverse businesses, nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions. The initial group of organizations that will work together on finalizing the association’s charter, and become “Founding Members” upon its completion are: payments – Mastercard, PayPal, PayU (Naspers’ fintech arm), Stripe, Visa; technology and marketplaces – Booking Holdings, eBay, Facebook/Calibra, Farfetch, Lyft, Mercado Pago, Spotify Technology S.A., Uber Technologies, Inc.; telecommunications – Iliad, Vodafone Group; blockchain – Anchorage, Bison Trails, Coinbase, Inc., Xapo Holdings Limited; venture capital – Andreessen Horowitz, Breakthrough Initiatives, Ribbit Capital, Thrive Capital, Union Square Ventures; and nonprofit and multilateral organizations, and academic institutions – Creative Destruction Lab, Kiva, Mercy Corps, Women’s World Banking.
For more information, please contact:
Amarpreet Kaur
Marketing Lead
Creative Destruction Lab
Email: amarpreet.kaur@creativedestructionlab.com
