ATAI Life Sciences Secures $43 Million Series B Funding to Advance Novel Therapies for Treatment-Resistant Depression

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned that on March 27, 2019, U.S. biopharmaceutical company ATAI Life Sciences announced the completion of a $43 million Series B financing round. The round was led by Subversive Capital, with participation from Apeiron Investment Group and Bail Capital. The newly raised funds will be used to further enhance ATAI Life Sciences’ technology platform and develop new drugs.

Since its establishment in 2018, ATAI Life Sciences has cumulatively raised over $68 million, completing a $25 million Series A financing round on October 3 last year.

ATAI Life Sciences Funding History (Source: Crunchbase, VCBeat)

ATAI Life Sciences was co-founded by Christian Angermayer, Lars Wilde, and Dr. Florian Brand, with offices in Berlin, London, and New York. The company’s vision is to cure patients’ mental illnesses, enabling them to lead healthier and happier lives. Leveraging a big data platform for drug discovery and development, along with specialized talent, financial resources, and technology, ATAI accelerates the entry of psychiatric therapeutics into early-stage clinical trials.

ATAI Life Sciences’ primary objective is currently to provide solutions for the more than 300 million depression patients worldwide. In January 2019, the company acquired Perception Neuroscience, which is currently developing arketamine therapies for psychiatric disorders. ATAI Life Sciences is also the largest investor in Compass Pathways, a company developing psilocybin therapy for treatment-resistant depression that has received FDA approval. In addition to drug development, ATAI Life Sciences collaborates with Innoplexus, a provider of big data and artificial intelligence solutions for large pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

“Mental illnesses such as depression cause suffering for many people,” said Florian Brand, CEO and Co-Founder of ATAI Life Sciences. “There are approximately 300 million people with depression worldwide, of whom 100 million do not respond to existing medications. We are developing novel drugs and therapies to treat these mental disorders.”

Michael Auerbach, a partner at Subversive Capital, stated, “We are delighted to invest in a company poised to achieve significant medical breakthroughs and help numerous patients with depression.”

Christian Angermayer, Founder of ATAI Life Sciences, said: “Our relentless pursuit of excellence enables us to integrate resources and ensure more effective drug research and development. I am immensely proud to have assembled such an outstanding team—comprising researchers, computer scientists, entrepreneurs, and investors—working together to fulfill our mission of helping people lead healthier and happier lives.”

Subversive Capital, founded in 2015 and headquartered in New York, USA, is dedicated to investing in disruptive startups. Its success stories include Hyperloop One, the company behind Elon Musk’s proposed Hyperloop concept.

(Compiled by Yang Shaobo)