A nine-month programme for scalable, seed-stage, healthcare-focused companies has just begun at Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.
Following the success of the first AI stream, Creative Destruction Lab Oxford (CDL-Oxford) embarks on a new journey pursuing technological innovation applied to healthcare. The new stream aims at facilitating and speeding up the commercialisation of technological advancements in the life sciences domain. The areas of interest include diagnostics, medical devices, therapeutics, and AI driven drug discovery.
‘The Covid crisis has left no doubt just how important innovation is in the health sector. We are thrilled to be launching this new health stream that will bring together the entrepreneurial community in the UK and Continental Europe. We will work together on building the next generation of ambitious health ventures who are pushing the boundaries of technology to improve human lives. Now is the time to truly support our innovative health entrepreneurs.’ said Professor Thomas Hellmann, CDL-Oxford Site Lead.
This month twenty ventures have been enrolled into the inaugural cohort of CDL-Oxford Health 2020/2021. Spanning over a period of nine months, the programme will afford participants direct contact with a pool of UK and international and experienced entrepreneurs that act as mentors. Their expertise will guide teams in setting achievable objectives and bring innovations to the market while also providing access to industry-leading investors and advisers.
Creative Destruction Lab is a non-profit organisation that delivers an objectives-based programme for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. The organisation operates in eight sites and each one is tied to a business school. Launched in 2019 at Saïd Business School, Creative Destruction Lab Oxford is the first CDL site in Europe and now offers two streams - AI and Health. Graduates from the first AI cohort 2019/2020 included a variety of ventures operating in deep learning, big data algorithms, natural language processing, and diagnostics.
A fundamental component of all CDL sites is the Student Programme designed to introduce the students of the hosting business schools to the context, decision-making principles, and practices of equity investing for early-stage and scalable ventures. This year, sixty-six students will take part in the programme by working with founders on bespoke challenges, such as developing financial models, evaluating potential markets, or fine-tuning strategies for scaling.
Sarah Barratt-Ball, Director of CDL-Oxford said: ‘CDL-Oxford enables students within the Said Business School to join the entrepreneurial journey of our Health ventures, while experiencing the scientific guidance and mentoring advice that comes from harnessing the convening power of a world class University within the framework of the Creative Destruction Lab programme. We look forward to continuing that journey into the second year of CDL-Oxford, now working alongside both Artificial Intelligence, as well as Health entrepreneurs.'