‘Data DAO’ Delphia raises $60M Series A led by Multicoin Capital

Algo-adviser startup Delphia has closed a $60 million investment round backed by some of crypto’s biggest venture funds as it embarks on the creation of a new data-focused decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

The Series A was led by crypto-focused venture firm Multicoin Capital, with additional participation from Ribbit Capital, FTX Ventures, Valor Equity Partners, FJ Labs, Lattice Ventures and Cumberland. Delphia will use the funds to launch a new rewards token as well as expand the ways users can contribute data to algorithmic models, which will be used to enhance investor returns.

According to Multicoin Capital co-founder Tushar Jain, data DAOs utilize user-owned data to benefit all contributors within the organization. As an Algo-adviser, Delphia will use data contributed by users to further enhance thetrading algorithms that directly manage their money.

0/ I’m excited to announce that Multicoin has led a $60M round in @delphia with participation from FTX Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Cumberland, Road Capital, and others.

Delphia is the first instantiation of a new type of organization uniquely enabled by Web3: a DataDAO.

— Tushar Jain (@TusharJain_) June 8, 2022

“Data contributors are rarely rewarded for their contributions […] Because they don’t have a right to the value created by the aggregate data, nor are they entitled to govern how their data is used, which leads to a massive leap of faith in the aggregator—which, unfortunately, has been violated many times over,” Jain explained. Data DAOs “solve this misalignment by giving data contributors direct economic upside in the aggregate data and the ability to govern it.”

Related: VC Roundup: The rise of blockchain gaming, DAO management and asset tokenization

Delphia’s investment platform offers long-only actively managed strategies. Users can invest a minimum of $10 to gain exposure to a diverse portfolio of individual stocks.

DAOs have sprung up in various ways to give users access to communities free of hierarchical management. DAO structures have even received the attention of national governments looking to encourage project formation and development within their own borders. Proponents believe that DAOs incentivize the long-term sustainability of crypto projects by giving users a direct share in their growth.