XPRIZE, AirMiners and Creative Destruction Lab Announce Partnership to Support Early-Stage Carbon Removal Startups Interested In $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--XPRIZE, AirMiners and Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) today announced a partnership to support early-stage carbon removal startups interested in the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal competition. 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.

Developed in partnership with XPRIZE and Creative Destruction Lab, AirMiners Launchpad is a six-week program for early teams or individuals interested in the $100M XPRIZE Carbon Removal. Innovators and entrepreneurs hoping to compete for the prize should join the AirMiners Launchpad for startup support.

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

The AirMiners Launchpad accelerates founders towards gigaton scale carbon removal. The program helps founders establish their team, develop business strategy, roadmap their tech, and connect to the broader carbon removal network.

"We're excited to partner with AirMiners and CDL Climate to support early stage teams as they compete for the XPRIZE,” said Nikki Batchelor, Prize Director for the XPRIZE Carbon Removal. “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.”

Advising AirMiners on program development is Paul Cubbon, Site Lead of CDL-Vancouver and Assistant Dean Innovation of UBC Sauder School of Business at The University of British Columbia. "AirMiners is the best place for early-stage carbon removal entrepreneurs to start their companies, and upon graduation, we look forward to seeing 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.”

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 interest in CDL Climate here. AirMiners Launchpad will also be hosting a launch event on April 28 at 12pm PT, register here.

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.

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://www.creativedestructionlab.com