VitaDAO to create a for-profit company to fund longevity research
Weeks after raising $4.1 million from a host of investors, including pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Ventures, VitaDAO has approved a proposal to create VitaTech, a US-based for-profit company that will secure and distribute funding for longevity research.
Voting on the proposal ended on Wednesday evening. Details on Snapshot show that the proposal received 36 votes, with about 94% support from the participants. Only 5.2% opposed the idea.
According to the proposal, there is a gap between longevity-related projects and access to funding. This means that a significant percentage of these projects fail to reach the commercialization or investable stage. VitaTech is hoping to fill this lacuna in US universities and national labs.
“Advancing a good candidate to the FDA-ready IND stage requires $3-5M in funding, which is beyond the current scope of VitaDAO’s funding,” the proposal stated.
That said, VitaTech will raise “non-dilutive funding” to develop and license longevity technologies from US universities and research institutions into commercializable assets. The non-dilutive funding will leverage public funding from research foundations, the Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR), and the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) programs.
Creation of VitaTech will accelerate the acquisition and development of research assets [...] The primary objective of VitaTech will be to accelerate the commercialization of longevity technologies through a search and build approach.
To kickstart operations, VitaTech will be funded with $50k from the DAO’s treasury. The funds will go towards setting up the company and applying for its first two grants.
Meanwhile, the VitaTech team will be made up of “experienced professionals from the VitaDAO community with expertise in technology licensing, product development, and business development.” There is a target to fund two projects in 2024 and five projects in 2024.
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