VitaDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) focused on raising funds for research on extending human life, has closed a $4.1 million funding round with Pfizer Ventures and several others.
VitaDAO was started in 2021 by Tyler Golato of decentralized biotech protocol Molecule to fund longevity research. According to the organization, it boasts a community of over 9,000 "enthusiasts, researchers and contributors," and deployed over $3.5 million to projects researching diseases of aging, cellular biology and repairing age-related damage to the body in 2022.
The latest funding round includes pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Ventures; venture fund Shine Capital; investment group L1 Digital; decentralized science organizations BeakerDAO and Spaceship DAO; and longevity enthusiasts including former Coinbase Chief Technology Officer Balaji Srinivasan and Retro Biosciences' Joe Betts-LaCroix. Previous investors include Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin.
According to VitaDAO, Pfizer is the first pharmaceutical company to vote on DAO proposals and participate in the incubation and commercialization of VitaDAO projects.
Proceeds from the latest round will go toward funding longevity research projects and building out VitaDAO's first biotech startup, slated to be announced in the first quarter of 2023. In addition, the group plans to invest further in the "commercialization and licensing" of its non-fungible token (NFT) intellectual property (IP) through its partnership with Molecule.

#vita #VITADAO #Pfizer