Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is launching CDL FinTech, a new stream that will supercharge financial technology ventures in the United Kingdom and beyond, to spur the next stage of the fintech revolution. 

Fintech innovation is starting to go beyond simple digital solutions for consumers. Machine learning, data science, and distributed ledger technologies like blockchain are opening up new possibilities for financial technologies and products.

CDL FinTech is looking to foster new ideas in embedded finance, data protection and encryption, digital identification and verification, financial accessibility, payments services, anti-fraud services, Automated Transaction Monitoring and distributed ledger technology. The programme is also open to complementary professional service industries like Lawtech, Insurtech and Regtech. 

The stream will support commercially-driven, seed-stage science and tech-based ventures focused on fintech 2.0 areas like embedded finance, financial access and the future of data science and regulation.

Founders who are selected for the nine-month programme will receive mentorship from respected industry leaders, have the chance to collaborate with world-class scientists and top business students, and receive opportunities to raise capital from angels and VCs from Europe and North America.

CDL FinTech will be based at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School.

Participating founders will benefit from the university’s proximity to London, the epicentre of the global finance industry, and from the world-class research taking place at The Oxford Future of Finance and Technology Initiative. Oxford’s strong offering of courses in fintech also make it the natural home for this new CDL stream.

At CDL, the successful commercialization of cutting-edge science and technology achieved through the program has led to the creation of over $8 billion in equity value, including alumni from CDL-Oxford’s Artificial Intelligence and Health streams.

Applications for CDL FinTech will open mid-April at creativedestructionlab.com/apply. Selected ventures will start the nine-month programme in October 2021. To learn more, please contact info@creativedestructionlab.com.

QUOTES 

“It’s important that people don’t perceive finance as just the world of the wealthy. We need finance, like we need water and food. But it hasn’t always been accessible. FinTech will make it accessible.

There’s still a huge disparity between those that have financial education and those that do not. FinTech can be a force for good to bridge that inequality.”

— Sarah Barratt Ball, Director, CDL-Oxford

“The Fintech revolution has only begun. Data science and AI hold enormous promise for transforming our entire financial infrastructure. At CDL we work with ambitious founders from anywhere, helping them to turn bold visions into commercial realities. Now is the time to do this for Fintech!” 

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

“If the conjunction of one of the world’s leading financial centres, the City of London, a world-class network of universities and the largest pool of entrepreneurs and SMEs in Europe is at the heart of the incredible success of the U.K. fintech industry, the Saïd Business School’s CDL Fintech Initiative may be one of the smartest way for investors to tap into it.”

— Xavier Rolet KBE, CEO of CQS, ex-CEO of London Stock Exchange. Advisor to CDL-Oxford

“It is an exciting development for the future generation of fintech entrepreneurs to have a CDL FinTech stream now launching at CDL-Oxford. As a founder and now a mentor with the programme, the rigorous objectives-based mentoring process would have been a great commercialisation tool when I was building my own organisation.”

— Damian Kimmelman, Co-Founder & CEO, DueDil, Founders Pledge, and Rho

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 (Saïd Business School, University of Oxford), Paris (HEC Paris), Atlanta (Scheller College of Business, Georgia Institute of Technology), Madison (Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Vancouver (Sauder School of Business, University of British Columbia), Montreal (HEC Montréal), Calgary (Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary), and Halifax (Rowe School of Business, Dalhousie University). Its 14 streams include commerce, climate, space, agriculture, matter and now fintech. Since CDL’s inception, participating companies have created more than $8 billion (CAD) in equity value.