Creative Destruction Lab

Offers commercialization and innovation support through research infrastructure, entrepreneurship guidance, and startup pathways.

Creative Destruction Lab is a Canadian nonprofit accelerator based at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Founded in 2012/13, it was built to strengthen science commercialization and now operates under CDL-Global, led by chief executive Sonia Sennik.

It does not issue cash grants or take equity from participants. Instead it runs a nine-month, objectives-based program for seed-stage science and technology ventures, with focused mentorship, technical guidance, and personalized eight-week objectives. Its platform spans more than 20 streams across 15 locations, including advanced therapies, climate, health, quantum, space, and artificial intelligence.

CDL's scale comes from its network rather than capital deployment: more than 7,900 founders, more than 4,000 ventures, and more than 1,000 mentors are part of the ecosystem, with reported equity value creation of CAD 51 billion. The organization is funded through philanthropy, corporate sponsorships, the Rotman Catalyst Fund, and a Canadian Strategic Innovation Fund grant, which makes it a commercialization platform rather than a grantmaker.