The famed tech entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel has backed a German startup that’s looking to develop psychedelic drugs to treat mental health issues. He chipped into a $125 million Series C that Berlin-based ATAI Life Sciences just announced, participating alongside investors including Falcon Edge Capital, Catalio Capital Management, and ATAI’s own founder Christian Angermayer who is a successful serial tech entrepreneur and investor.

ATAI Life Sciences is akin to a drug development platform, whereas it funds, acquires, and incubates psychedelics and other drugs that are developed by external researchers in exchange for a majority stake in the drugs being developed. The company has begun funding experimental treatments for disorders including depression and opioid addiction.

The use of psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders is still a relatively young idea but one that has caught up in recent years. Even now, psychedelics come with many restrictions and is outrightly illegal in many countries. 

Founded just in 2018, ATAI is looking to fund the development of psychedelics for medical use with hopes of getting successful drug candidates. The company seems similar to Roivant, which is a well-known biotech startup that operates on the same model as ATAI but for infectious diseases.

ATAI was founded by Christian Angermayer, an entrepreneur who made a big fortune founding and investing in several successful companies. He’s now looking to strike gold again, this time in a fairly nascent market whose workings aren’t yet firm.

Christian Angermayer.

Depending on how the market for psychedelics go, ATAI could ride a wave and pioneer drug candidates in the sector. On the other hand, the company risks working on drug candidates that won’t turn up successful, but such is entrepreneurship.

Out of the $125 million Series C that ATAI just raised, Peter Thiel provided $12 million through his eponymous investment firm Thiel Capital. Notably, Thiel is fresh off a cash windfall that he got from taking his data mining and analytics firm Palantir public this September, given that according to SEC filings, he’s offloaded $278 million worth of shares since Palantir went public just about two months ago.

Photo credit: (cc) Kenneth Yeung – www.snapfoc.us

                          Hubert Burda Media, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

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