Vana Raises $5 Million to Build User-Owned Data Pools

Vana, a web3 startup focused on creating a network of user-owned data pools, announced on Wednesday that it has raised an additional $5 million, bringing its total funding to $25 million.

Coinbase Ventures led this strategic funding round. Previously, Vana secured $18 million in Series A funding from prominent crypto venture capital firm Paradigm.

The startup aims to establish decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) that utilize blockchain technology to address the shortage of training data for AI models while providing income opportunities for internet users. Vana joins a growing number of companies focused on the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence.

Co-founder and CEO Anna Kazlauskas emphasized that data capable of enhancing AI models holds significant value, especially private data from users of social media platforms, which can be even more valuable. Vana's DAOs will enable members to pool their social media data and monetize it by selling it to AI researchers.

Kazlauskas pointed out that the data sourced from public internet platforms is largely exhausted, and data from login-required platforms like Facebook and Instagram is considerably more valuable and protected.

Reddit DAO Launch

In April, Vana launched a DAO for Reddit users, enabling them to contribute their platform history to a monetized data pool. Reddit users with high 'karma' could earn between $300 to $400.

While Vana aspires to create a network of over a dozen DAOs, the Reddit DAO is currently the only operational one, as Vana's mainnet has yet to go live. About 140,000 users have joined the Reddit DAO.

Kazlauskas believes Vana's DAO network could empower individuals to become stakeholders in the future of AI, declaring, "It's about owning a stake in AI." She noted that offering a stake in an AI model or collective dataset is often more engaging for users than merely compensating them for their data.