Mystic Ventures
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Overview
What do Peter Thiel, Kevin O’Leary, Tim Ferris, Sam Harris, Michael Pollan, Sting, and Tony Robbins all have in common? They are either advocates for or directly investing in psychedelic medicine and research. The past decade has ushered in a psychedelic renaissance, inspiring a massive push for research, decriminalization, and legalization of these powerful substances. There has been a radical shift in discussions of consciousness expansion, which has broken into the mainstream. With newfound, burgeoning support ranging from academia to medicine, government to business, there’s an extraordinary opportunity to tap into the commercial and social potential of this nascent space. Mystic Ventures believes the world would be much better if more people experienced the healing power of psychedelics. Mystic cares about mental health and human conditions. The fund’s goal is to draw on my experience as an entrepreneur and investor, backing pre-seed and seed-stage startups creating high-quality psychedelic experiences and treatments. I am starting Mystic to support founders who realize the healing power of psychedelics to elevate humanity’s consciousness. I will harness my broad network and abundance of resources to ensure the success of these ventures. Given my reach throughout the investing world and social media, as well as a growing network within the psychedelic space, I am confident that we will have outstanding deal flow and access to any emerging opportunities. We will draw on a wide range of industry experts, from medical professionals to academics, to validate startup theses, but the focus will be on investing in world-class, dynamic founders. Given how early this industry is, it’s difficult to pinpoint precisely how big the market opportunity is— but considering the large, ever-expanding applications of psychedelic medicines and therapies, the potential is nothing short of mind-boggling. The global market for drugs used in mental disorders was $70.1 billion in 2012. Just the antidepressant drug market was valued at $13.69b in 2015. More broadly, in 2019, mental health spending topped $225 Billion in the US alone. Two publicly traded psychedelic companies, both founded in the past five years, Compass Pathways and MindMed (which we were offered pre-IPO access to), have market capitalizations over $1 billion, and many more have nine-figure valuations. In contrast, the global legal marijuana market was valued at $17.7 billion in 2019. Thus, it’s hard to overstate how large and how quickly this space could grow. The priority is getting this fund to market as soon as possible, which is why we chose a Rolling Fund. Whenever possible, I will spin up SPVs for LPs that would like larger exposure to deals or when it's deemed appropriate to do follow-on investments.
- Total investments
- 3
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 3
Sector focus
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- Psylo
Participated · Seed · Jun 2024
Psylo is a biotechnology company focused on developing next-generation neuroplastogens, led by CEO Joshua Ismin and CSO Samuel Banister. Its flagship candidate is PSYLO-100X, a non-hallucinogenic 5-HT2A agonist intended to treat depression and other mental health disorders. The company’s platform has produced a candidate designed for safe at-home administration without clinical supervision. Psylo plans to use the newly raised capital to accelerate advancement of PSYLO-100X through development activities. The company raised $8M in Seed funding to support these efforts. Leadership frames the raise as validation of Psylo’s translational approach and the therapeutic potential of its pipeline. Psylo is developing novel mental-health therapeutics inspired by psychedelic compounds such as psilocybin. The company leverages AI and computational chemistry to design and streamline molecules intended to deliver the proposed therapeutic benefits of psychedelics without hallucinogenic effects. Psylo aims to apply these approaches to treat mental illness as an alternative to traditional antidepressants. At the Purpose Conference in Sydney the company noted that Australians are heavy users of traditional antidepressants, which it said are only about 20% more effective than placebo. Psylo has raised $5 million in a seed funding round to advance its therapeutic development and operations. The seed capital is intended to support its drug-design and development efforts.
- Heading Health
Participated · Series A · Jun 2023
Heading Health combines evidence-based mental health care with personalized treatment plans, offering a continuum of in-network services for hard-to-treat conditions. The company provides interventional psychiatric services in its centers, including intramuscular ketamine, Spravato, and TMS, alongside psychiatry and therapy via telehealth. Founded in 2020 by co-founders Steve Levine, MD, and CEO Simon Tankel, Heading operates locations in the Austin and Dallas–Fort Worth metros. It plans further expansion in Dallas and a first location in Houston later this year. Heading intends to use new funding to scale into new markets and to invest in its care delivery and analytics platform. The company recently completed a notable financing round, signaling early-stage investor interest in its in-network, intervention-capable care model.
- Journey Clinical
Participated · Series A · Jan 2023
Journey Clinical provides licensed psychotherapists and eligible patients access to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapies, supplying clinicians with tools to deliver PAP and connecting patients to a medical team and network of licensed mental-health professionals. The company began with Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) and plans to expand to other psychotherapeutic treatments as they are validated, researched, and approved for broader FDA use. Since opening its platform in February 2022, Journey Clinical has grown its KAP clinician network from 30 to about 700 and has treated over 1,000 patients nationwide. The company is co-founded by Jonathan Sabbagh (CEO) and Myriam Barthes (COO). Financially, Journey Clinical raised an $8.5M Series A, bringing total funding to roughly $12M. The company intends to use the funds to continue scaling its offerings across the U.S. Journey Clinical operates a decentralized clinic model that enables licensed psychotherapists to provide legal psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, beginning with ketamine. The platform handles the pharmacology and access to prescribing clinicians while therapists deliver customized psychotherapy treatment plans. Therapists pay a $200 monthly membership for services including access to a prescriber, a white-label EHR, KAP training, a directory profile, and a peer community. Patients pay $250 for intake consultations and $150 for follow-up consultations. Journey says the market is disparate, with over a million licensed mental health professionals lacking the infrastructure and access to prescribers needed to offer these treatments. The team includes co-founder and CEO Jonathan Sabbagh, psychiatrist Kyle Lapidus MD, Ph.D., and Brigitte Gordon DNP.