Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) announced on Thursday, the newest location for its accelerator program.
Opening in Atlanta, Georgia, CDL is partnering with the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) Scheller College of Business for CDL-Atlanta. The newest North American operation marks the eight location globally for CDL.
Since it launched in Toronto, CDL has expanded to more than eight locations around the world.
Ajay Agrawal, founder of CDL and professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, pointed to Georgia Tech’s reputation as one of the top ten ranked engineering departments in the world as one of the reasons to partner with the school. He added that the new program represents “significant opportunity for both parties.”
CDL is a not-for-profit program focused on “massively scalable”, seed-stage science- and technology-based companies. Founded in 2012 by Agrawal at the University of Toronto, CDL offers a nine month program that pairs founders with experienced entrepreneurs and investors. The organization claims that since its inception, companies that have participated in its programing have created more than $4.5 billion CAD in equity value. Alumni include North, Xanadu, and BenchSci.
Since it launched in Toronto, CDL has expanded to more than eight cities including Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, Oxford, and most recently Paris, France. CDL-Atlanta marks the second United States (US) location for the accelerator.
Applications for CDL-Atlanta are set to open in April 2020 and will be available to startups both within and outside of the US. The program is looking to accept 25 companies into the first cohort.
Alex Oettl, associate professor at Georgia Tech Scheller College of Business, is set to be the co-site lead for CDL-Atlanta. “What excites us the most about bringing the CDL program to the Scheller College of Business is the ability to combine the research excellence of Georgia Tech with the unique CDL model to scale the next generation of startups operating at the scientific frontier,” he stated.
