Quick take:
The fund is fully backed by the Sei Foundation with no external capital committed.
The foundation remains open to working with external investors or limited partners in the future.
Decentralised Science is a new concept of startup funding that expands access to scientific research funding and promotes fair compensation for scientists.
Sei Foundation, the organisation behind layer-1 blockchain Sei has launched a $65 million fund to invest in decentralised science (DeSci) projects.
According to the announcement on Wednesday, the fund is fully backed by the Sei Foundation with no external funding yet, but the organisation said it may work with external investors or limited partners in the future.
Dubbed “Sapien Capital – Open Science Fund 1”, the fund targets projects exclusively building the layer-1 blockchain, Sei.
Decentralised Science is a new concept of startup funding that expands access to scientific research funding and promotes fair compensation for scientists. The sector is increasingly growing in popularity as it is viewed as a disruptor of traditional research institutions where funding is controlled by centralised entities.
DeSci allows researchers to share and access research data on-chain, thus promoting the culture of decentralised communities.
Commenting on the announcement, Justin Barlow, head of business development and investments at Sei Foundation said: “DeSci has the potential to scale massively due to its universal impact and the vast number of stakeholders across healthcare, science and biotech. Our goal is to empower visionary founders who are building the infrastructure, applications and communities needed to support and scale this emerging vertical.”
Sapien Capital – Open Science Fund 1 will not offer grants, with the only funding channels being through venture capital in both equity and tokens. The check sizes will range from $100,000 to $2 million, Barlow said, adding that the fund plans to deploy the full capital over the next three to four years.
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