Thread by @paulkhls

I'm humbled, in awe, and excited to announce

@Molecule_dao raised a $12.7m seed round led by @npv_vc to build the future of #DeSci and biotech

Grateful to my love Laura, my Co-Founder @GolatoTyler, our entire team, and the @vita_dao community

And to our visionary backers!

Molecule's mission is to create public infrastructure that enables decentralized, democratic and open medicine development for humanity

To achieve this we're providing researchers with a novel intellectual property framework

And patients w/ new organizational tools to govern IP

More here: statnews.com/2022/06/23/wit…

theblock.co/post/151539/de…

How did we get here...?

Well it all started in 2018 at @dappcon_berlin when we presented about IP-NFTs the first time and their use cases: slideshare.net/PaulKohlhaas/t…

Our vision has been consistent since Day 1.
medium.com/molecule-blog/…

But let's be honest, it was pretty crazy

Building a global decentralized biotech system? Fractionalising IP ownership? Patient-driven funding?

As one VC called it "breathtakingly complex"

But @GolatoTyler and I were relentless, and the basic concept too obvious, the need and opportunity for patients too large

So we found a group of pioneers crazy enough to back us

Fittingly led by @lunar_vc @verbine @shemtovo - @inflectionvc @AlexLangeVC @signature_vc @juliane_svc @PossibleVC @hit_ch @smleicht @AminoCollective @nitinsharma1 @AndrewDARMACAP

We'll be forever grateful for your trust!

We raised €325k pre-seed in Jan 2020, for many this was their first cheque.

PSA: Working with first-time fund founders, especially when they're still raising, is incredibly rewarding as your partners deeply care and really make the time.

Your success is their success.

And with that we went out to slay dragons, the Moloch of pharma 🐉⚔️

Today, we have a running research marketplace universities around the globe and have funded +3 labs via IP-NFTs @VIKorolchuk @ScheibyeKnudsen @TheFangGroupUiO

& helped build the first biotech DAO @vita_dao

We were able to execute well because we had amazing frens.

Molecule would not be possible without @LinumLabs and their team who incubated us in 2019, helped build our first bonding curve in 2020, as well as the @vita_dao architecture in 2021

@wschwab_ @Devkrz @ktfou & all 🙏

Next, we scale, we decentralize, and deliver value to patients and researchers 👩‍🔬

In the coming quarters we are:
- taking our marketplace out of beta
- decentralizing & opening the IP-NFT dev stack
- bio DAO launchpad bio.xyz & grant program
- launching @PsyDAO_

We also believe that this funding will be an extremely helpful catalyst for the #DeSci community as a whole

We intend to return it in the forms of grants and ecosystem investments, creating playbooks, hosting events like @DeSciBerlin, and connecting entrepreneurs with investors!

As we embark on this next chapter, we're humbled to be partnering with the best investors, angels, and friends in both the biotech and the web3 space.

Finding partners who have exp and can form conviction on this intersection was truly challenging.

Until we found Northpond @npv_vc - one of the best modern US biotech VCs - who turned out to be the perfect partners for our next phase

Northpond is led by scientists at the core. In 2020 they funded a lab at Harvard and maintain relationships with many leading universities

They did 10x the due diligence we saw any other fund do, they upskilled themselves in web3 super fast, they listened, and worked with us every step of the way

@patricksmalone's team were the great first bio investors to "get" the implications and imagine the future with us.

They helped lay the foundation for our system to become interoperable with the current industry and validated it via some of the best law firms & connected us with world-leading TTOs

Bringing biotech into web3, building trust, and providing value will be our biggest hurdle

Next, we wanted to bring on web2/web3 bridger builders and true web3 "token maximalists"

We're incredibly excited to work with @ShineCapitalNYC and the dangerously charming @mokoyfman

And @1kxnetwork props to @lalleclausen and @HeyoChristopher to being true bear builders

Then we went for the DAOs who's members we consider as future users.

@TheLAOOfficial
@seedclubvchq
@OrangeDAOxyz
@beakerdao

Having DAOs as your backers is a superpower as you tap into a user base, 100 mentors and proponents. Give DAOs bigger stakes than VCs if you can :)

I'm incredibly thankful to @chrisleiter_ - one of the most thoughtful pioneer investors pioneers in #DeSci and debio. Chris and I met in 2018 when Molecule was an idea and has been an incredible partner.

And he brought in @GaingelsVC to help us embrace diversity in hiring 🌈

some of the best bio funds joined

@fiftyyears I admired for its bio impact focus & believe @elamadej @sethbannon are doing really important work 🌍

@petribio @kulesatony @pillar_vc shared our vision and we see so many synergies aka @NucleateHQ towards decentralized biotech 🧫

@KdT_Ventures and the truly awesome @benjileibo
@BackedVC and the amazing @AlexBrunicki
@ceeceeboom is phenomenal and has made killer intros since
@aloktayi from @vibe_bio to promote the web3 ethos of coopetition
@BreyerCapital

And some incredible web3 funds and leaders we respect and cannot wait to work with:
@ZeePrimeCap & @Fiskantes
@CompoundVC & @mhdempsey
@L1Digital_ & Ray Hindi
@ChorusOne & @crainbf & @MeherRoy

A shoutout to 4 special angels:

@balajis for helping raise awareness @vita_dao and who's thinking I enormously respect
@StefanDGeorge one of the kindest web3 builders
@QwQiao who has been a vocal #DeSci supporter since day 1
@licuende for inspiring us to build DAOs radically

+ many excellent generalist investors and web3/bio angels
@speedinvest @BoxGroup @CherryVentures @protocollabs @KindergartenVC @BoolCapital

@AndrewSteinwold @RonjonNag @pierskicks @notscottmoore @bitcoingarrett @allisondman Pamir Galenbe @pbanhardt @againstutopia @accelmed

Most importantly though

true MVP is our rockstar team who BUILT it while @GolatoTyler & I did Zoom marathons
@michelecanzi @beatabaranowsk @jsshdsn @carlomallone @cl2pp @EzanneTess @Heintess_GM @vincentweisser @firlefanzski @KummerLutz @steveodega @ThiloWitting @jnsousapinto

+ @IsabelT5000 @simclennan @joweniger @DecentralDisco @KummerLutz @cerbivore

Forever grateful to get the opportunity to work with you. We have a lot of hard work ahead of us, and I couldn't think of a better team to be slaying dragons with 🐉🤺

Also shoutout to my mum ❤️ fin

Tagging the real @seedclubhq 🙏