AI data project Vana Capital $25 million from Paradigm, Polychain and Coinbase Ventures
In the age of AI, data has become the new fuel. But AI researchers are facing a barrier: a lack of public Internet data to train useful AI models.
So Vana was born to provide a solution to this data shortage, while ensuring that data contributors are properly rewarded.
The project announced it has raised a total of $25 million in funding to accelerate its mission of creating user-owned AI and overcoming the data wall barrier AI researchers face.
Announcing $25M in total funding to break the data wall with user-owned AI. Excited to have @cbventures onboard, alongside @ Paradigm (Series A), and @polychain (Seed).
— vana (@withvana) September 18, 2024
AI is only as good as its training data. Vana unlocks data from walled gardens through the power of data DAOs. pic.twitter.com/RW5v5KvxRc
This grant includes:
- $5M Strategic Round Led by Coinbase Ventures
- $18M Series A Round Led by Paradigm
- $2 Million Seed Round Led by Polychain
Jackson Dahl from Paradigm expressed:
“We are very impressed with the Vana team as they envision a user-owned future for data. We look forward to XEM what AI products they can build.”
Vana is the first network designed for user-owned private data. The project is building an EVM-compatible Layer-1 blockchain designed specifically for collective ownership of private digital assets.
Vana Key Features:
- Users pool their data through a data DAO, secured by proof of contribution
- Contributors have ownership in the AI models they help build
- EVM compatible: dataset-specific Token , AI model-specific Token
- Top 16 data DAOs will Chia emissions
Vana's testnet has seen significant traction, with leading projects in the ecosystem:
- @rdatadao, where 140,000 Reddit users joined the DAO and have now trained the first user-owned AI model
- Twitter Data DAO, founded by the first Bittensor Miners group
- LinkedIn Data DAO, the first Venture Capital -backed project on Vana
In addition, Vana also received investment from: Casey Caruso, Packy McCormick, Manifold, GSR, Will Price, Jez, SCB 10X, Defiance Capital, Contango, Auros Ventures, MH Ventures, BoxGroup and Will Manidis.
With the funds raised, the project plans to accelerate the development and support an ecosystem of decentralized AI projects built with user-owned data.
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