Peter Thiel-backed psychedelics start-up plans to raise $100 million in IPO
Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal Inc.
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ATAI Life Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company aiming to make psychedelic drugs to treat mental health disorders, announced that it is planning to raise $100 million in an initial public offering.
The Berlin-headquartered company, which counts billionaire investor Peter Thiel as one of its main backers, submitted an S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
The filing shows that ATAI has raised an aggregate of $362.3 million from private investors so far.
It is planning to sell its shares on New York’s tech-focused Nasdaq market under the symbol ATAI. A date for the IPO has not been set.
Underwriters for the IPO include Credit Suisse, Citigroup, Cowen, and Berenberg.
ATAI, which describes itself as a drug development platform, was set up to acquire, incubate and develop psychedelics and other drugs that can be used to treat depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental health conditions.
The company — founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Christian Angermayer, Florian Brand, Lars Wilde and Srinivas Rao — is yet to have any drugs formally approved by regulators.