Varro Receives $20 Million from Vitalik Buterin

Varro Receives $20 Million from Vitalik Buterin to Support Development of Cutting-Edge Pathogen Biosensor Technology

Varro to enable improved pathogen detection worldwide by making its proprietary biosensor tech platform available via Open Source

NEW YORK, ST. LOUIS and SINGAPORE – October 31, 2024 – Varro Holdings, Inc. (“Varro”), an emerging leader in products that disrupt the transmission of infectious disease, today announced it has entered into an agreement with Vitalik Buterin to receive 20 million USDC (equal to $20 million) in non-dilutive financial support for the development of its novel pathogen detection technology, and to make the technology available via open source. The funds will be provided via Buterin’s scientific finance and direct donation initiative, Kanro.

“Our tech platform is unique for its ability to detect very low amounts of virus and other pathogens quickly, effectively, and at low cost,” commented Tom Cirrito, PhD, Chairman and CEO of Varro. “Our partnership with Kanro and our open-sourcing of the technology has the potential to transform global public health by changing the face of infectious disease management and enabling innovation. We are proud to share Vitalik’s vision of decentralized healthcare and pandemic preparedness.”

Vitalik Buterin said, “I’m pleased to support a free and open-source hardware (FOSH) business that will both develop crucial tools for preventing the next pandemic, as well as pioneer a new paradigm of free and open-source hardware development that can enable widely distributed access to tools for personal health and beyond. A d/acc future is one where everyone can verify that the air they breathe is clean and free from airborne pathogens.”

Varro is commercializing breath-based diagnostic devices, indoor air quality monitors, and micro-immunoelectrode biosensors (MIEs) that detect pathogens in seconds in a variety of settings. Initial target users of the technology include senior living centers, primary care clinics, medical facilities, offices, government and military facilities, and schools. The company is committed to demonstrating the advantages of the open-source business model in biotech and diagnostics. Toward that end, the company is establishing an open-source community around the technology.

The MIE platform is exclusively licensed from Washington University in St. Louis, where it was
developed as a collaborative effort between John Cirrito, PhD, a professor of neurology, and Carla Yuede, PhD, a professor of psychiatry, both at the School of Medicine, and Rajan Chakrabarty, PhD at the university’s McKelvey School of Engineering. The National Institutes of Health, through its RADx program, and FluLab, a private foundation, have also provided grants and support.

About Varro

Varro Holdings, Inc. (Varro) is an innovative health-tech company developing products to disrupt the transmission of infectious disease and improve human health. Founded in 2020 as Y2X Life Sciences, the company’s vision is to ensure and enable healthy environments and to prevent future pandemics and disease outbreaks. Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) was an ancient Roman scholar whose work anticipated the sciences of microbiology and epidemiology.

For more information, visit varrobio.com and connect with the company on LinkedIn.

About Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin is co-founder of Ethereum. He supports free and open-source biosecurity, pandemic prevention and indoor air quality programs both directly and via his scientific investment and direct gifting funds Balvi and Kanro, which have to date distributed over $400 million worldwide, with a focus on low- and lower-middle-income countries.

Contacts for Varro

Business Development:
David Shuler
Varro, Inc.
dave@VarroBio.com

Media:
Bill Douglass
Gotham Communications
+1(646)504-0890
bill@gothamcomm.com