VitaDAO, a Decentralised Autonomous Organization (DAO) and Decentralised Science (DeSci) startup, has raised $4.1 million in a funding round. Pfizer Ventures, Shine Capital, Balaji Srinivasan (formerly the CTO of Coinbase), SpaceshipDAO, BeakerDAO and other investors participated in the round. The DAO’s first biotech firm, whose announcement is expected in March 2023, will be built using part of the cash from this round of funding. This will be the first such involvement by a DAO in the science research and medical fields.
The advent of DeSci and VitaDAO’s place in it
With the rise of DeSci, VitaDAO has made it its mission to fund research that could one day significantly lengthen the average human lifespan. The DAO is administered by a decentralised form of scientific research, which seeks to use blockchain technology and digital currency to facilitate crowdsourcing for scientific research projects. DeSci’s ultimate goal is to establish a more productive and efficient scientific ecosystem free from the stifling influence of governments and major organisations.
The latest batch of funding will also be used to support studies aimed at extending human life expectancy. VitaDAO is currently prioritizing funding for initiatives investigating ageing and the effects of living a long life. Investments in the form of both equity and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) representing intellectual property are used to finance the initiatives that VitaDAO backs.
VitaDAO’s ecosystem is powered by its native token, VITA. The DAO intends to finance business-related activities such as commercialisation and licensing. VitaDAO has included pharmaceutical giant Pfizer in its governance proposals and worked with the company in creating its programs. The company plans to use the DAO to find and de-risk early-stage ventures dealing with age-related diseases. The advent of DeSci and VitaDAO’s ability to attract prime corporate institutions could catalyse favourable responses from investors. Ultimately, that could spill over to the wider digital assets market, with VITA token benefiting.