CDL cohort

Nurturing Unicorns: How Creative Destruction Lab - Oxford is helping the UK to grow science and technology start-ups.

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CDL matches science and technology founders with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists.

Nurturing Unicorns: How Creative Destruction Lab - Oxford is helping the UK to grow its own science and technology start-ups.

This week, founders of 26 high-potential science and technology ventures will embark upon Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) at Oxford Saïd – a programme to help these early-stage ventures commercialise their ideas and attract investment.

CDL matches science and technology founders with experienced entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists. Over 9 months, it helps them set focused, measurable objectives to help them massively scale their ventures. Originally founded at the Rotman School of Management at University of Toronto, CDL now operates from 7 locations, with Oxford being the 1st in Europe.

Thomas Hellmann

26 Artificial Intelligence (AI) companies have been chosen from a pool of over 270 applicants. These companies all focus on either advancing the technological frontier itself or using AI to innovate across a broad spectrum of industries, including health, construction, media, finance and others.

Dr Thomas Hellmann, DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Oxford Saïd, and leader of CDL-Oxford, believes that CDL’s innovative approach will have major benefits for the UK economy.

‘Founders in Silicon Valley benefit from an ecosystem that is rich in mentors and investors. We want to create a similar entrepreneurial ecosystem here in the UK, that not only supports founders, but investors also,’ he says. ‘Industries such as AI have been identified as crucial to the next stage of the UK’s economic growth and have the potential to add a lot of value to the UK economy. If we are to take advantage of this, it is essential that we create the right sort of innovation culture to make those companies thrive. Our motto is “Build something massive”.’

The programme has been made possible with support from the government’s Research England Development Fund, as well as high calibre private benefactors including:

  • Peter Davies, Partner of Lansdowne Partners
  • Mark Evans, Partner at Kindred Capital
  • The Kavelman-Fonn Foundation
  • Robin Klein, Founder of LocalGlobe
  • John McCall MacBain, Entrepreneur and philanthropist
  • Patrick Pichette, Partner at Inovia and former CFO of Google
  • Kjell Skappel, CEO of TD Veen AS
  • Niklas Zennstrom, Co-Founder of Skype and Founding Partner of Atomico