Toronto University’s accelerator, Creative Destruction Lab, and a subsidiary of the Business Development Bank of Canada, BDC Capital, are entering a three-year partnership.
BDC will be fully involved with the lab’s activities and have a seat on the accelerator’s advisory board. The partnership gives BDC Capital the status of a founding partner. In turn, startups graduating from the accelerator will be eligible for BDC’s convertible note programme. Through that same programme, BDC has already invested $13.2m in 87 companies across the world.
The partnership with the lab follows BDC’s earlier investments in six of its startups: Oti Lumionics, Whirlscape, PiinPoint, Push Design Solutions, Linkett and Kiwi Wearables. Driving force for the more formal partnership was the federal Canadian government’s Economic Action Plan 2013, which mandated that the Business Development Bank of Canada allocate $100m in additional funds to invest in high-growth startups and startups graduating from accelerators.
The Creative Destruction Lab was set up in 2012 and since then has generated $100m in equity value over two cohorts which have each lasted eight months. It is aiming to reach $1bn and looking particularly at expanding its focus to include healthcare technology startups.
Dominique Bélanger, vice-president of strategic investments and partnerships at BDC Capital, said: “We are looking to support as many of Canada’s high-potential early-stage companies as we can, while connecting them to the mentorship and private investments that they need. We are now looking to partner with other select accelerators that have demonstrated their ability to produce and support world-class venture-fundable startups in the IT, healthcare and industrial, clean, energy technology sectors. Rotman’s Creative Destruction Lab is a perfect fit.”
