Quarterly Fundraising Activity in Psychedelics

The 2024 calendar year got off to a roaring start with a small crop of substantial rounds in Q1.

Lykos Therapeutics (formerly MAPS PBC) kicked off the year by announcing a $100m+ Series A (see MAPS PBC Closes $100m Series A, Rebrands to Lykos Therapeutics). That momentum continued as both Cybin and MindMed raised substantial sums via public offerings on the back of FDA Breakthrough Therapy Designation announcements (see Cybin Scores Breakthrough Therapy Designation for Deuterated Psilocybin Analog in MDD…; FDA Hands MindMed’s LSD Candidate Breakthrough Therapy Designation in Generalised Anxiety Disorder).

While valuations were markedly more modest than those seen a few years ago, the advent of these substantial rounds has been seen as a welcome signal for investors and operators alike.

The momentum from Q1 2024 was not quite sustained in Q2, however, with aggregate investment dropping to just over $175m. That’s nothing to be sniffed at, however, as the last time we saw a quarter with this level of investment—aside from Q1—was Q4 2022.

Q2 2024 included several notable rounds, such as Reunion Neuroscience’s $103m Series A (see Reunion Neuroscience Gets a New Lease of Life with $103M Series A to Fund Phase 2 Studies of 4-HO-DiPT Prodrug, but also Tempering Excitement Around Recent Raises); Gilgamesh’s deal with AbbVie which included a $65m cash injection (see Breaking: AbbVie Inks Deal with Gilgamesh Pharmaceuticals); and Psylo’s first close on a seed round (see Mini Interview: Joshua Ismin, Psylo).

Q3 saw a further chill on new investment, however. Read our analysis.

Q1’25 saw funding flow once more into the field, though that was dominated by rounds from three publicly-traded drug developers. Q2’25 saw the return of major private financings, with Lykos Therapeutics’ $50M Series B punctuating the quarter. Still, aggregate inflow was much lower than that seen in the first quarter.

Aggregate inflow was again depressed in Q3’25, despite a substantial increase in investor optimism.

But Q4 2025 saw financing raw back to life, with aggregate inflows reaching levels not seen since the heady days of 2021. Notably, rounds from AtaiBeckley ($149.5M), Helus Pharma (formerly Cybin; $175M), and Definium Therapeutics (formerly MindMed; $259M) punctuated the quarter and represented the vast majority of dollars raised in the final three months of the year.

Private Psychedelics Company Investment Rounds

Looking only at investments in private companies and disaggregating this data by round, we see a total lack of Series B or C financings in 2023, at least in terms of announced financing events. That trend continued through 2024 and Q1’25, but Q2’25 saw the return in the form of a Series B financing of Lykos Therapeutics, which was really a recapitalisation. In Q3’25, roughly half of inflows accrued to private companies, but Q4’25 was dominated by public financings.

Sources & Uses (2017 – 2025)

Using a Sankey chart we can visualise, broadly¹, the sources and uses of capital inflows.

The vast majority of capital inflows to the psychedelics field has accrued to drug discovery and development companies. This should be unsurprising, given the fact that drug development is very capital intensive and the relatively nascent nature of the medical psychedelics industry.

We also see a relatively even split between VC and public financing, in aggregate, though public companies have attracted a larger share of dollars in recent years.

Public Psychedelics Companies by Marketcap

The basket of around thirty-five publicly-traded psychedelics companies is dominated, in terms of marketcap, by a handful of companies: Definium Therapeutics, AtaiBeckley, GH Research, and Compass Pathways.

We gain a further sense of perspective by comparing the aggregate marketcap of these public psychedelics companies to that of mid-cap, large-cap and mega-cap pharmaceutical companies like Sage², Otsuka and Pfizer, respectively.

As of summer 2025, however, AbbVie might not be the best comparator, as it acquired Gilgamesh’s lead psychedelic candidate and thus became a psychedelic drug developer itself.