CDL to debut stream supporting advanced manufacturing

The Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is debuting a new stream out of its Seattle location this summer to support advanced manufacturing.

Ventures chosen to participate in CDL Manufacturing will receive funding and networking opportunities. They will also have access to mentorship from scientists and academics from the University of Washington, and seasoned engineers and entrepreneurs from the ranks of Boeing, Microsoft and more.

CDL will be accepting 20 to 25 pre-seed to pre-Series A startups focusing on additive manufacturing, advanced materials, iIIndustrial Internet of Things, machine intelligence, robotics, simulation tools and workforce augmentation.

“The digital transformation of the manufacturing sector is long overdue,” says Rob Meyerson, CDL-Seattle Manufacturing mentor and founder and CEO of Delalune Space, a management consulting company focused on aerospace, mobility, technology and investment. “We’re excited to apply Creative Destruction Lab’s proven methods to this critical sector.”

CDL selected Seattle and the University of Washington as the base for its manufacturing stream as the city is home to some of the largest high-tech design and manufacturing firms in the world.

“The pandemic combined with climate change and the rapidly changing geopolitical landscape are likely to have a force-multiplier effect that will enable a time of unprecedented change in all aspects of where and how things are made,” says CDL Manufacturing mentor Scott Schiller. “CDL Manufacturing represents an amazing opportunity to take the great work that has been done to create the technologies that fall under the Industry 4.0 umbrella and deploy them as feedstock for startups focused on solving the problems of the future.”

CDL-Seattle pairs participating founders with accomplished entrepreneurs and engineers who have decades of experience in manufacturing and want to help the next generation succeed.

When asked about the possibilities for the new CDL Manufacturing stream, Kristjan Sigurdson, director of CDL-Seattle, imagines startups scaling AI- and data-infused approaches to manufacturing that would revolutionize areas of the production line, the introduction of new materials and nano-engineering, as well as advances in cloud computing and connectivity which under-write the industrial Internet of Things.

“There’s a huge amount of interest in that diversification of where things are made and being able to produce on the spot flexibly,” says Sigurdson. As we enter this new age of advanced manufacturing, tech will have a competitive edge over labour costs. That’s why CDL Manufacturing will work with pre-seed and seed-stage startups to massively scale their enterprises.