(@withvana)

#Vana has raised $25 million to advance its mission of creating user-owned #AI and overcoming the "data wall" that AI researchers face due to the shortage of public internet data. The funding includes a $5M strategic round led by #CoinbaseVentures , an $18M Series A led by #Paradigm , and a $2M seed round led by #Polychain .

Vana addresses the issue of limited training data by allowing users to pool their data through decentralized autonomous organizations (data DAOs), ensuring that contributors are fairly rewarded. The platform, built on an EVM-compatible blockchain, is the first designed for private, user-owned data. Key features include proof of contribution, rewards for top data liquidity pools, and incentives through dataset- and AI model-specific tokens.

Their testnet has gained traction with projects like Reddit, Twitter, and LinkedIn data DAOs. The funding will help accelerate Vana’s development and support decentralized AI projects that rely on user-owned data. Other notable investors include GSR, Defiance Capital, and BoxGroup.