Worldwide, April 26, 2021 — Creative Destruction Lab (CDL), XPRIZE, and AirMiners have partnered to support early-stage carbon removal startups interested in the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition.

As a specialized stream of the Creative Destruction Lab, CDL Climate operates from CDL-Paris (HEC Paris), CDL-Oxford (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), and CDL-Vancouver (UBC Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia). CDL Climate is to support founders developing high impact, scalable solutions to reverse climate change and save the planet.

Funded by Elon Musk and the Musk Foundation, the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal is the largest, most audacious incentive prize in human history. To win the five-year competition, teams must demonstrate solutions that permanently remove carbon dioxide and reduce the impact of climate change. 

Creative Destruction Lab and XPRIZE created the 6-week AirMiners Launchpad program to support teams or individuals accelerating their trajectory towards gigaton scale carbon removal. The program helps founders establish their team, develop business strategy, roadmap their technology, and connect to the broader carbon removal and climate network.

Advising on program development is Paul Cubbon, Site Lead of CDL-Vancouver and Assistant Dean Innovation of the UBC Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia. “AirMiners is the place for early-stage carbon removal entrepreneurs to start their companies, and upon graduation, we look forward to supporting many of them at CDL Climate,” said Cubbon. “We are excited to collaborate with AirMiners and XPRIZE Carbon Removal to help create massively scalable companies to remove carbon at scale to meaningfully address the climate crisis and benefit humankind.”

Quotes from Our Teams and Partners

“The CDL Climate team is devoted to act as a convener and curator for the community. We look forward to collaborating with XPRIZE and AirMiners, supporting ambitious innovators solving intractable problems, and being part of their entrepreneurial journey.”

Yuan Shi, Director, CDL-Vancouver at Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbi

“We’re excited to partner with CDL Climate and AirMiners to support early stage teams as they compete for the XPRIZE. Many carbon removal concepts are still nascent and will benefit greatly from the AirMiners Launchpad curriculum around technology development, customer discovery, and roadmapping. We encourage every applicant to the XPRIZE Carbon Removal to participate in AirMiners Launchpad.”

Nikki Batchelor, Prize Director for the XPRIZE Carbon Removal

“If you’re looking to go after the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal, the AirMiners Launchpad is the place to get your team started.”

Tito Jankowski, Lead of AirMiners

“The climate challenge is global and complex, so solutions require both global and entrepreneurial thinking. At CDL, we are committed to bringing together communities and honing their entrepreneurial talents to build something massive. This collaborative approach will be essential to make a difference in climate.”

Thomas Hellmann, Site Lead, CDL-Oxford & DP World Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford

CDL Climate, AirMiners Launchpad, and XPRIZE will host a launch event  on April 28 at 12 PM PDT (register here). Sign-ups for the first AirMiners Launchpad are now open. New cohorts will begin quarterly, with the cut-off for the first cohort being Tuesday, May 25th. Interested entrepreneurs can register for AirMiners Launchpad here, XPRIZE Carbon Removal here, and CDL Climate here.

About Creative Destruction Lab

Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a nonprofit organization that delivers an objectives-based program for massively scalable, seed-stage, science- and technology-based companies. Its nine-month program allows founders to learn from experienced entrepreneurs, increasing their likelihood of success. Founded in 2012 by Professor Ajay Agrawal at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the program has expanded to nine sites across four countries: Oxford, Paris, Atlanta, Madison, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal and Halifax. Learn more at https://creativedestructionlab.com

About AirMiners

AirMiners is the place for entrepreneurs, engineers, scientists, and designers working to extract carbon from the air. It exists to support the global carbon-negative community with networking, events, education through the AirMiners Boot Up, and now support for new innovations through the AirMiners Launchpad. To learn more about AirMiners visit http://airminers.org, or follow on Twitter @airminers or LinkedIn

About XPRIZE

XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $100 Million XPRIZE Carbon Removal, $10 Million XPRIZE Rainforest, $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, $6 Million XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing, the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling, and $500K Pandemic Response Challenge. For more information, visit xprize.org

Media Contact

Amarpreet Kaur (amarpreet.kaur@creativedestructionlab.com) or Lorena Dexter Chaichian (lorena.dexterc@sauder.ubc.ca)