This Week:
- 🏠 Psychedelic Therapy Companion App Brings Home $4m in Seed Round
- 📒 Community edition: six projects our readers are working on
- 💵 Angermayer Increases atai stake by 1m Shares
- 🗳 Our newsletter readers will vote on whether they believe the ‘trip’ is necessary to the apparent therapeutic benefits of psychedelics. Join us here (it’s free).
After last week’s April Fool’s edition and this week’s slimmed-down Bulletin, next week we will return to our regular programming.
Psychedelic Sector News
Psychedelic Therapy Companion App Brings Home $4m in Seed Round
Homecoming’s seed round success signals increasing investor interest in the psychedelic ‘rails’
Yesterday, Toronto-based Homecoming announced the closing of an over-subscribed $4m seed round. The round was led by Evolve Ventures and Integrated, with other notable investors including the Beckley Foundation’s Amanda Feilding, Bridge Builders Collaborative, and Lionheart Ventures.
The platform, which went live in Q4 2021, provides tools to support the scaling of clinics and retreats, guiding patients through each stage of this specific modality with a focus on the importance of preparatory and post-session integration work. In real-terms, on the patient side this comes in the form of daily check-ins as well as guides and tasks.
Buoyed by this raise, Homecoming said it’s investing in developing “new, more engaging resources and exercises for tech-augmented preparation and integration,” and is working on a customisable program for ketamine therapy content.
In an increasingly common move among psychedelics-related companies, Homecoming has donated 10% of its equity to non-profit partners including TheraPsil, Heroic Hearts Project and the Beckley Foundation.
Community edition: six projects our readers are working on
Last week we mentioned that this week’s Bulletin would feature a number of psychedelics-related projects our readers are working on. Below are a half-dozen such endeavours. Do get in touch to let us know what you’re working on.
The Intercollegiate Psychedelics Network (IPN) is accepting new members and sponsors
“The Intercollegiate Psychedelics Network (IPN) is a youth-led garden organization dedicated to the development of students as the next generation of multi-disciplinary leaders in the field of psychedelics.”
The network is running its second year of student talks, PSYCHEDELX 2022, and is seeking sponsors for this event.
The PPA is anchoring the role of pharmacists in advancing psychedelics as medicines
The Psychedelic Pharmacists Association (PPA) is a non-profit focused on both educating healthcare providers and the medical community on psychedelic medicine, and advocating for the value of pharmacists in the psychedelic continuum of care.
They also have an active online member community, which is also open to non-pharmacists. Membership info here.
Connecting early-career (psychedelic-assisted) therapists with experienced supervisors
Sophia Gebbia-Richards and Jules Barlow are connecting new (psychedelic-assisted) therapists with experienced therapist supervisors (and clients) via PSYCLE.
Something to look forward to: ICPR in Amsterdam this September
This year’s Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research 2022 is taking place in late September 2022.
It’s an impressive line-up including Katrin Preller, David Nichols, Kim Kuypers, Rick Doblin, Erika Dyck, Roland Griffiths, Monica Williams, Matthias Liechti, and many, many others. Info and tickets here.
Raad Seraj is launching a podcast with underrepresented scientists, artists, and founders
The podcast, Minority Trip Report, launches soon. Subscribe for updates.
Marc Goldgrub et al. are sharing information about psychedelics law in Canada
This 11-page State of Canadian Psychedelic Law primer, authored by Sebastian Pazdan and Marc Goldgrub of Green Economy Law, is a good starting point for those seeking to understand the ‘legal psychedelic renaissance.’ A second page that explains Canada’s Special Access Program, as it relates to psychedelics, is also informative.
Angermayer Increases atai stake by 1m Shares
Christian Angermayer has increased his stake in the company he founded, atai Life Sciences, by 1 million shares. The purchase was revealed in SEC filings and discussed by Angermayer on Twitter,
Angermayer explained that “many biotech stocks are cheap [at the moment].” In terms of atai, the investor said the company stands out to him for 2 reasons:
- “the size of the market (unfortunately)”;
- “the fact that compounds historically selected by atai have prior human or anecdotal evidence.”
The call option transaction is the latest showing of confidence in the company by its large shareholders. In December 2021, we reported on how Angermayer and other key shareholders voluntarily locked-up their shares for a further 12 or 24 months as the pre-IPO investor lock-up was set to expire. Angermayer himself shared his thoughts via his LinkedIn newsletter, Christian’s world, in a post titled Putting my money where my mouth is with atai Life Sciences.
Psychedelic Caviar? Mimosa Reveals ‘Natural Psilocybin Droplets’
Raised in a liquid culture, the Pearls are tiny, ethereal globes made from mycelium that resemble caviar. “We have this beautiful way to offer the best of both worlds,” says Keim. “It’s both the consistency of synthetics, but the full spectrum of mushroom fruiting bodies.”
Head to Lucid News for the write-up.
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