Longevity focused venture capital firm moves into the decentralized Web3 ecosystem with new partnership.
Interesting news emerging from the blockchain today. Decentralized technology firm Molecule AG has announced a tripartite partnership with longevity-focused venture capital fund Apollo Health Ventures, and VitaDAO, a decentralized autonomous organization funding early-stage longevity biotech R&D. The goal of the partnership is to collaborate on financing and building the longevity biotech ecosystem.
Longevity.Technology: Much of the discussion around the potential impact of blockchain and decentralized funding approaches in the longevity sector has predominantly been in the context of an “alternative” to more traditional funding routes. With an established VC firm like Apollo now getting involved, this is clearly a significant milestone for the decentralized ecosystem. We’ll be watching closely to see how this partnership evolves.
VitaDAO and Molecule collaboratively source geroscience assets and finance R&D at universities, institutes and biotech companies. VitaDAO has a worldwide network of more than 4,000 community members engaged in sourcing and evaluating early-stage longevity biotech assets and will collaborate with Apollo on financing this work.
“We at VitaDAO are honoured to enter a formal partnership with Apollo Health Ventures,” said Tim Peterson, a core member of VitaDAO. “Their expertise will be invaluable as we aim to help more longevity scientists turn their ideas into real-world applications. At the same time, we are excited to help Apollo tap into global talent that pharma traditionally doesn’t explore. As well, we hope to introduce Apollo to crypto/Web3 and its potential for new paths to finance drug development. It’s an exciting time to be in biotech and longevity!”
Bringing Web3 to biotech
Molecule describes itself as a “biotech IP Web3 marketplace”. Web3 is a term coined by Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood, and relates to a new approach to the internet, based on blockchain technology, which incorporates concepts including decentralization and token-based economics.
Molecule believes that inefficiencies in longevity biopharma R&D and university tech transfer can be addressed using Web3 marketplace tools. This includes new types of liquid asset class, such as the IP-NFT, a type of non-fungible token pioneered by Molecule that holds intellectual property.
New forms of governance via DAOs, such as VitaDAO, and valuation of IP, such as IP-NFTs, moves early-stage intellectual property into Web3 to allow for greater liquidity, discoverability, and reduced legal complexity by standardizing licensing terms.
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