A COVID-19 gifting fund started by Ethereum’s Vitalik Buterin earlier this year has taken notice of burgeoning Toronto startup Raven, created by emergency room physician, Dr. Kashif Pirzada (BSc 2001).
Raven has received approximately $250,000 USD in grant money from the fund, dubbed Balvi. The capital will go towards growing the Raven Clean Air Map, which tracks carbon dioxide (CO2) levels with the aim of assessing COVID-19 risk.
Pirzada created the Raven Clean Air Map as part of a three-person team after seeing what he called a lack of systemic efforts at COVID-19 prevention.
“I’ve seen a public response, a government response that’s always slow and reactive,” he told BetaKit. “There isn’t sort of an attention paid to the science especially, or an attention paid to prevention.”