Innerwell – Healthcare
What it is:
Innerwell offers a psychedelic teletherapy platform that is focused on ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. They are leveraging advancements in psychedelics and digital care, which allows licensed providers to help and treat patients. The practitioners build therapeutic relationships with their patients to help them experience psychedelic therapy in a safe and supervised environment, providing personalized digital care before, during, and after their exposure. The company is initially focusing on virtual care but does plan to expand to offer in-person care as well as add other psychedelics to its offering like MDMA when they are FDA-approved. Ketamine has been used as an FDA-approved anesthetic for more than 50 years.
The company is currently hiring psychiatrists, NPs, PAs, and therapists. Once onboarded, they will receive psychedelic therapy training which is coordinated with partner Fluence. Fluence offers professional education in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and integration.
There is currently a waitlist that interested patients can join.
Who Made It?
Innerwell was co-founded in 2021 by current CEO Lisa Kennedy and Chief Growth Officer Anthony Mangia. The founding and operating team of Innerwell includes people from Oak Street Health, Span Health (acquired by Eight Sleep), Calm, Coinbase, Nanit, and Ericsson, who all came together because they wanted to help enable a better life for those whom it may benefit the most from this kind of therapy.
Innerwell is working towards expanding the model of psychedelic therapy for at-home and in-person treatment aided by groundbreaking medicine like psilocybin and MDMA.
Funding status:
The company raised $3M of seed funding in a deal led by Greycroft in June 2022. Max Ventures and Looking Glass Capital also participated in the round.
Why we like it:
- The company is emerging from stealth mode and is recruiting and educating psychiatrists and therapists in cutting-edge psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy
- The company’s ketamine-assisted psychotherapy experience leverages advances in both psychedelic treatment and digital care to help patients with anxiety and depression
- Though substances such as psilocybin and LSD have long been outlawed by the U.S. government, changing cultural attitudes and recent promising scientific studies have re-opened the door for their potential authorization, according to Pitchbook analysts.
Did you know?
A February 2022 study from John Hopkins Medicine indicated that Psilocybin (a psychedelic treatment for major depression) is effective for up to a year for most patients (Source). Additionally, the psychedelic drugs market size is projected to reach $10.75B by 2027 (Source).