CDL-Seattle debuting stream to support advanced manufacturing
by CM Staff
CDL will be accepting 20 to 25 pre-seed to pre-Series A startups focusing on additive manufacturing, advanced materials, industrial Internet of Things and other workforce augmention.
CDL Manufacturing stream announcement
SEATTLE — This summer, Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is debuting a new stream out of its Seattle location. Ventures selected to participate in CDL Manufacturing will receive opportunities for funding as well as networking. In addition, they will 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, industrial Internet of Things, machine intelligence, robotics, simulation tools and workforce augmentation.
“Manufacturing is one of the last bastions of non-digitized processes,” explains Emer Dooley, CDL-Seattle site lead.
“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.
CDL has chosen Seattle and the University of Washington as the base for its Manufacturing stream as the city is home high-tech design and manufacturing firms.
“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, who was a VP and head of global market development for Hewlett Packard’s 3D printing business until 2021. “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 experience in manufacturing and want to help more manufacturers 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.
