Media Releases

UofT’s Creative Destruction Lab Accepting Applications from Technology and Machine Learning Ventures

July 27, 2016

Toron­to, ON – The Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is the world’s pre­mier seed-stage pro­gram for mas­sive­ly scal­able, sci­ence-based ven­tures.

The Lab is now accept­ing appli­ca­tions from ven­tures to be part of its fifth annu­al cohort. It employs an objec­tives-based men­tor­ing process with the goal of max­i­miz­ing equi­ty-val­ue cre­ation and is par­tic­u­lar­ly suit­ed to ear­ly-stage com­pa­nies with links to uni­ver­si­ty research labs. The nine-month pro­gram begins every Sep­tem­ber with two streams – one for tech­nol­o­gy ven­tures and a sec­ond exclu­sive­ly for machine learn­ing and arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence ven­tures. The pro­gram is com­ple­men­tary to oth­er ven­ture incu­ba­tion and accel­er­a­tion pro­grams. The Lab takes no equi­ty in the ven­tures that are admit­ted and charges no fees.

Ben­e­fits of par­tic­i­pat­ing in the pro­gram include:

  • objec­tives-based men­tor­ship from select entre­pre­neurs and angel investors — the G7 and ML7 Fel­lows and Asso­ciates;
  • oppor­tu­ni­ties to raise cap­i­tal;
  • advice on tech­nol­o­gy roadmaps from the Lab’s Chief Sci­en­tists;
  • strat­e­gy and busi­ness devel­op­ment insights from Rot­man fac­ul­ty and MBA stu­dents at Canada’s pre­mier busi­ness school.

Ven­tures can apply online for the Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab at www.creativedestructionlab.com. Final appli­ca­tions are due by August 15.

Found­ed by Prof. Ajay Agraw­al, the Cre­ative Destruc­tion Lab lever­ages the Rot­man School’s lead­ing fac­ul­ty and indus­try net­work as well as its loca­tion in the heart of Canada’s busi­ness cap­i­tal to accel­er­ate mas­sive­ly scal­able, tech­nol­o­gy-based ven­tures that have the poten­tial to trans­form our social, indus­tri­al, and eco­nom­ic land­scape. The Lab has helped many nascent star­tups, includ­ing Deep Genomics, Green­lid, Atom­wise, Bridg­it, Min­u­um, Nymi, NVBots, OTI Lumion­ics, PUSH, Thalmic Labs, Vertical.ai, Nev­er­frost, Chargespot, and Vote­Com­pass, among oth­ers.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment is locat­ed in the heart of Canada’s com­mer­cial and cul­tur­al cap­i­tal and is part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, one of the world’s top 20 research uni­ver­si­ties. The Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables our grad­u­ates to tack­le today’s glob­al busi­ness and soci­etal chal­lenges. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

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For more infor­ma­tion:

Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Tel: 416.946.3818
E‑mail: mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca

Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool