Here are the 15 hottest startups in the psychedelics industry, according to top investors

Founded: 2019

Located: Oxford, UK 

Total raised: £84 million, or about $103.5 million

Picked by: Andrew Chomer, managing partner at Integrated, investor; and Bek Muslimov, a cofounding partner at Leafy Tunnel, investor

What the company does: Beckley Psytech is developing psychedelics-based treatments for neuropsychiatric disorders. It got its start when the Beckley Foundation, a nonprofit focused on drug-policy reform and research into psychoactive substances, began to look for business opportunities to pursue drug development. 

The company is developing treatments for treatment-resistant depression, alcohol-abuse disorder, and major-depressive disorder. 

Why investors like the company: In addition to Beckley's roots with the foundation, Chomer said that Beckley has also recently strengthened its pipeline and development team with the acquisition of the psychedelics company Eleusis Therapeutics.

Muslimov said that his fund invested in Beckley in part because of their seasoned team and the high therapeutic potential of 5-MeoDMT, the psychoactive compound found in the Sonoran Desert toad and some plants.

Founded: 2019

Located: ​​Issaquah, Washington

Total raised: over $23 million

Picked by: Sa'ad Shah, managing partner at Noetic Fund, investor

What the company does: CaaMTech is a pharmaceutical drug-discovery company that wants to develop novel psychedelic medicines to treat mental-health conditions. 

Why investors like the company: Shah said that CaaMTech has the most sophisticated and diverse patent strategy and portfolio in the psychedelics industry. 

"Because of CaaMTech's excellence in capturing IP, the company enjoys a unique ability to freely collaborate with other scientists without any restrictions on publishing the research findings for the benefit of the broader community," Shah said.

Shah added that the company collaborates with a diverse team of scientists from universities and industry players worldwide and is close to starting early trials this year. 

Founded: 2020

Located: London

Total raised: £2.5 million, or about $3.1 million

Picked by: Clara Burtenshaw, a cofounder of Neo Kuma Ventures 

What the company does: Clerkenwell Health, which a group of scientists and drug-policy reformers founded, provides commercial-research facilities for psychedelic-assisted therapy and psychedelic-specialist training. 

Why investors like the company: Burtenshaw said  Clerkenwell's progress and the speed at which they've been able to acquire the necessary licensing to provide their services have impressed her. 

"They are already at capacity as a trial site for a number of trials taking place this year and are looking at a second site to extend capacity," Burtenshaw said, noting that the company only opened its first site in London at the end of 2022.

Founded: 2019

Located: Concord, Massachusetts

Total raised: over $100 million

Picked by: Daniel Weiss Pick, a managing partner at WPSS.bio, investor 

What the company does: Delix Therapeutics is a neuroscience company that's developing nonhallucinogenic versions of psychedelic compounds, called psychoplastogens.

Why investors like the company: Weiss Pick said that Delix's approach will ideally allow it to tackle a bigger patient population. 

Weiss Pick added that he thinks medical professionals could potentially use Delix's treatments alongside psychedelic-assisted therapy sessions to prolong the therapeutic effects.

Founded: 2022

Located: Boston

Total raised: $3.3 million

Picked by: Shah; and Roberto Velarde, a managing partner at Iter Investments 

What the company does: Enthea is a benefit-plan administrator that provides health-plan-benefit services for psychedelic healthcare, beginning with ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. 

Why investors like the company: Velarde said that Enthea is at the forefront of assisting the psychedelics industry with healthcare-insurance coverage. 

"They are receptive, regenerative, unique, and understanding," Shah said. 

Founded: 2021

Located: San Francisco

Total raised: $14.1 million 

Picked by: Matias Serebrinsky, a general partner at PsyMed Ventures, investor

What the company does: Freedom Biosciences is developing ketamine and other psychedelics-based treatments for mental health. The former psychedelics investor Dina Burkitbayeva and John Krystal, the chair of the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, cofounded the firm, and Freedom raised $10.5 million in August. 

Why investors like the company: Serebrinsky told Insider that Freedom's leadership team has extensive experience developing and bringing clinical treatments to market. 

Serebrinsky added that FREE001, Freedom's lead compound, has demonstrated longer periods of antidepressant effects than ketamine infusions in the early trials Krystal conducted at Yale.

Founded: 2019

Located: New York City

Total raised: $73.6 million

Picked by: Simeon Schnapper, managing partner at JLS Fund, investor  

What the company does: Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals is developing psychedelics-based treatments for conditions like depression and opioid-abuse disorder. The company raised $39 million in December to start clinical trials. 

Why investors like the company: Schnapper told Insider that his fund knew the Gilgamesh team well before the company's seed round and has invested in each subsequent funding opportunity because of the team, the pipeline of treatments in development, and experience.

Founded: 2020

Located: Austin, Texas 

Total raised: $17 million

Picked by: Chomer

What the company does: Heading Health provides telemedicine, psychiatry, therapy, nutritional therapy, and ketamine therapy. 

Why investors like the company: Chomer said Heading Health is an exciting addition because of the spectrum of treatments the company offers. 

"Heading Health is an example of new models poised to make a significant impact in improving access to quality mental-health care," Chomer said. 

Founded: 2021 

Located: Miami 

Total raised: $1 million

Picked by: Cody Shandraw, managing partner at Ambria Partners, investor

What the company does: HealingMaps provides information about psychedelic-assisted therapy, including a list of ketamine clinics in the US, and global retreats.  

Why investors like the company: Shandraw said HealingMaps is one of the fund's favorite portfolio companies because it's building the digital infrastructure for the emerging psychedelics industry. Shandraw is the chair of HealingMaps. 

"They understand who this new patient is, the questions they have, and the kinds of treatments they're looking for," he said."That is extremely valuable in any new market." 

Founded: 2020

Located: New York City

Total raised: $16 million 

Picked by: Burtenshaw, investor; and Schnapper

What the company does: Journey Clinical is a platform that connects therapists to ketamine prescribers. Journey calls itself a "decentralized-clinic model" that helps licensed mental-health practitioners offer ketamine to their patients by connecting them to their in-house prescribers and educational resources. 

Why investors like the company: Burtenshaw said Neo Kuma invested in Journey's pre-seed round because the company's approach is "differentiated" from many at-home ketamine-treatment companies.

"We see this as a vital channel to increase scale," she said. 

Schnapper said that the company had a "great model," and "great foresight" on timing.

Founded: 2020

Located: San Francisco

Total raised: $57.2 million

Picked by: Tim Schlidt, a cofounder and partner at Palo Santo; Serebrinsky; and David Langer, a founding partner at Lionheart Ventures

What the company does: Osmind is a software platform that allows mental-health providers to administer psychedelics therapy, monitor patient outcomes, streamline workflows, and prescribe drugs. 

Why investors like the company: Schlidt said that the company is a pioneer creating an electronic health record for ketamine clinics and has "rockstar founders."

"They have managed to bring reputable VC funds such as General Catalyst on board, which has lent additional validation and credibility to their platform," Schlidt said.

Serebrinsky said that the data that Osmind collects could help treatments qualify for insurance coverage and may pave the way for safer and more effective treatments than ketamine, which can be addictive. 

Langer said that Osmind is the only psychedelics startup to have a pre-seed round where Lionheart Ventures wanted to invest, "but the round moved too fast for us and we missed out."

Founded:  2021, according to LinkedIn 

Located: San Anselmo, California

Total raised: $7 million, according to PitchBook 

Picked by: Muslimov

What the company does: Progressive Therapeutics is developing treatments for women's mental health, as well as "broader mental-health needs," according to the company's website. Progressive did not respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Why investors like the company: Muslimov said that the company "deserves a closer look from investors," because of its focus on women's mental health, its founding team, and its approach to running clinical trials.

Founded: 2019

Located: Tampa, Florida

Total raised: Declined to disclose. In 2021, Psilera told Insider they had raised $2.7 million to date. 

Picked by: Velarde, investor

What the company does: Psilera is developing psychedelics that don't cause hallucinations, with the aim of letting people take them at home for certain mental-health conditions.

The company uses an AI-based software to design the drugs and try to predict biological outcomes, which it says "de-risks" the compounds they select to further develop.

Why investors like the company: Velarde said Psilera's drug-discovery platform integrates computational chemistry screening, proprietary algorithms, and machine learning to identify new drugs faster and more cheaply.

A "group of experienced drug-discovery scientists" leads the company, Velarde said. 

Founded: 2021

Located: Zurich

Total raised: over $11 million 

Picked by: Ken Belotsky, a partner at Negev Capital, investor; and Langer, investor

What the company does: Reconnect Labs is developing psychedelic treatments for psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.

Its lead compound is based on DMT, a potent psychoactive chemical that's originally found in a plant and is a key ingredient in the psychedelic brew ayahuasca.

Why investors like the company: Belotsky said he believes that the company's "precision approach" to pharmacology and therapeutics will create compounds that work better and are safer than current medicines.

"The company is extremely capital efficient due to streamlined Swiss regulations and an experienced clinical-science team integrated with the University of Zurich," he added.

Langer said the team's scientific expertise, focus on good relationships with stakeholders, and their deep understanding of plant medicines have impressed him and his firm. 

Founded: 2020

Located: Palo Alto, California

Total raised: Undisclosed amount of seed funding from 10X Capital in May 2021, according to Crunchbase.

Picked by: Weiss Pick; and Schlidt, investor

What the company does: Tactogen says that it's using machine learning and other techniques to develop medications that are "safer, more effective, and more accessible." Tactogen did not respond to Insider's request for comment. 

Why investors like the company: Weiss Pick said that Tactogen is developing a "safer, gentler MDMA." 

Schlidt said that Tactogen's founder, Matthew Baggott, was a leading researcher in the field.

"If there is someone who can crack the code on identifying and developing a molecule that optimizes for limited discomfort upon onset, no abuse liability, no neurotoxicity, and commercial superiority, it is him," Schlidt said.