Strategic fundraise will accelerate longevity research and progress decentralized science.
VitaDAO has announced it has closed a $4.1m fundraising round from strategic contributors including Pfizer Ventures, Shine Capital and L1 Digital, decentralised science and web3 organisations Beaker DAO and Spaceship DAO, and longevity enthusiasts including Balaji Srinivasan (former CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at a16z) and Joe Betts-LaCroix (Retro Biosciences).
The proceeds from the fundraise will be used to fund further longevity research projects and precedes the much-anticipated spin out of VitaDAO’s first biotech startup, which is scheduled in the first quarter of 2023; the funding will also be used to further invest commercialisation and licensing of VitaDao’s IP-NFT assets through its partnership with Molecule AG.
Longevity.Technology: VitaDAO’s MOA is to identify, fund and incubate research and researchers using the tools of decentralised science (DeSci) to reduce the time for therapeutic development. VitaDAO has a community of over 9000 enthusiasts, researchers, and contributors, and has deployed over $3.5m in 2022 over 15+projects researching the diseases of aging, with a focus on cellular biology and the repair of damage associated with the Hallmarks of Aging.
“2022 was a highly successful year for VitaDAO – the quality of research we have seen has been impressive,” says Laurence Ion, Steward of the Dealflow Working Group.
“We’ve also seen some of our projects move rapidly to the next stage in development – such as entering into clinical trials with Mantis Photonics, new data from the Morten Scheibye-Knudsen Lab at the University of Copenhagen and the Victor Korolchuk Lab at the University of Newcastle. This has further proven that a highly aligned community can contribute to advancing the science and clinical innovation in longevity research.”
This raise is an important milestone for VitaDAO; it will allow the organisation to accelerate its mission of lengthening human lifespan and healthspan, and the new funds will allow it to invest in cutting-edge longevity research, commercialise new life-extending technologies and build out its global community of experts and enthusiasts.
Longevity.Technology reached out to VitaDao to find out more. Alex Miloski, L1 Digital AG, investment adviser to L1D (Lux) GP, told us: “We strongly believe in the ability of decentralized communities to coordinate effectively and take action in the real world given the right economic incentives.
“In less than a year, VitaDAO has managed to build a highly aligned network of contributors including researchers from top academic institutions around the world and fund multiple longevity research projects via a truly innovative framework (IP-NFTs). As a leading decentralized biotech organization, VitaDAO is uniquely positioned to benefit from the fusion of two industries growing at exponential rates: longevity and crypto.”
“We are extremely excited to be contributing towards VitaDAO’s mission to fundamentally change the way science is funded and translated into new therapeutics,” Miloski added.
