Wellknowlogy: 10/14/22

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Apologies for the late email this week. I don't plan on this being a regular occurrence and hope it doesn't impact your ability to engage.

The past week featured a lot of early-stage investment. Unsurprisingly, a number of the companies raising rounds were 'mental health platforms' of one kind or another.

As I'm seeing more of these, they seem to fall into a few different categories of differentiation: Novel diagnostics, solutions for specific challenges, solutions for specific demographics, novel therapeutic methods, intermediaries, and overarching 'mental health platforms'. I can (and likely will) go into all of these in more depth, but I'll skip that for now.

What I'm curious about this week is how these different approaches will evolve towards an aggregated ecosystem of mental health solutions. Which brand will emerge as the one stop shop; the Amazon of mental health? More interestingly, why?

Will it be the winner of the novel therapeutic category (ketamine?) that proves better than all others? Maybe it'll be the intermediary whose expertise is not one specific therapeutic method, but the ability to guide people towards the best solution for them. Or, it could be that one of these companies truly cracks the code with in-house solutions that are comprehensive enough to address all (or most) of our ills while encouraging our bliss.

What's cool right now is there's no way of knowing for sure and our best guesses are prone to change. Between our constantly evolving understanding of the mind, the complexity and sudden abundance of novel compounds (see last week's blurb), and the spider web of thoughts, feelings, biological states & environmental factors that result in you saying you're happy, there's a lot waiting to unfold.

Needless to say, it's a fun mystery to follow as each week brings new evidence to help determine who and what will be providing better lives for the people of tomorrow.

With that out of the way, here's what happened last week:

Neat Articles

• Three-quarters of Americans believe all health/wellness products should be tax-free

• Research suggests meditation can lower blood sugar levels as well as diabetes drugs

• An optimistic perspective on AI for mental health care

• How employers can ensure the mental wellbeing of employees

• How most new multifamily building projects weave in wellness

Market News

• Digital Mental Health investment down 82% in 2022

• Kaiser adds Ginger app to mental health ecosystem

• Numinus develops mushroom tea for use in psychedelic research

• Google Pixel 7 will have a snoring and coughing detection feature

• Alberta to be first Canadian province to regulate psychedelics for therapeutic use

• NBA legend Steve Nash starts purpose-driven athletic training platform

• CBD brand, TRIP, partners with meditation app, Calm

Fundings

• DEA-licensed cannabis cultivator closes $20M Series A funding round

• Pediatric mental health startup, Instride Health, launches with $26M and a vow to scale Mass General’s proven care model

• Canopy raised $2.9M for smart humidifiers

• Alleva scores $12M to grow behavioral health EHR

• HumeAI raises $3M to better understand patients’ emotions

• Layla raises funds from BDC and SOFII to grow personalized mental healthcare services

• Spren raises $11M for its camera-enabled biomarker platform

• Clerkenwell Health raises £2.1M to test psychedelic-assisted therapies

• Shimmer raises $1.3M for its ADHD coaching platform

• Folx Health Raises $30M for LGBTQIA+ health

• Fitness SaaS platform FitBudd bags $3.4M funding

• Microbiome service, Viome, raises $68M

• Virtual mental health company Brave Health secures $40M series C

Tidbits for You and Yours

• 6 thought exercises to strengthen mental health

• Magnesium for anxiety, bones, sleep, and more

• Thoughts on binural beats for brain wave optimization

Closing Kernel of Wisdom

• Check out how Buddhist Koans yield humility, the fertile soil for inner-discover (even though they're pointless). Here's one:

Two hands clap and there is a sound. So what is the sound of one hand?

You got to the end! Nice. I don't charge for this, but if you value this enough to give me money, feel free to do so — my venmo is @dsimenz. Also, please forward this to anyone that may appreciate it. I'll give them a button below to check out previous emails and add them to the list:

Wishing you a great weekend.

Warmly,

Dayton