Psychedelics Company Atai Life Sciences Files For Nasdaq Listing In Sector's Highly Anticipated IPO

Atai Life Sciences could soon become the second psychedelics company to list on a major U.S. exchange.

The Berlin-based biotech firm filed Tuesday with the SEC to raise $100 million in an IPO using the ticker symbol "ATAI."

The company handles a growing portfolio of about 12 companies, all focused on bringing novel mental health treatments through various technologies. In most cases, these include the use of psychedelic substances in mental health treatment.

Atai also owns about a 25% stake in Compass Pathways CMPS, a company developing psilocybin products for psychedelics-assisted psychotherapy, which debuted on Wall Street in September of last year.

A Mental Health Platform Company

Atai works as an umbrella company for a number of mental health startups dedicated to providing alternative solutions to mental health treatment.

The firm, which was founded as a holding company, rapidly mutated into an operating company that provides support to other ventures in the space.

With the exception of Compass, which handles its own operations, Atai provides companies in its portfolio with R&D infrastructure, legal, financial and accounting operations.

The pyschedelics companies that are on board continue to develop scientific operations separately, while Atai provides a unified platform for day-to-day operations and capital raising.

"The common thread, the bridge across all of these companies is the Atai personnel. We are heavily, heavily operationally involved, certainly on the development side, but beyond in all of these companies," Srinivas Rao, chief scientific officer at Atai, said in a recent interview. 

Its portfolio includes Perception Neurosciences, a company putting ketamine through clinical trials for the treatment of depression, as well as other companies developing psychedelic substances for medicinal purposes, including MDMA, ibogaine and DMT.

As a company largely focused on drug development, Atai’s revenue stream is still dependent on the regulatory approval of the compounds and treatments in its pipeline. As of now, molecules and treatments under Atai’s wing are still going through trials.

Related content: Benzinga's Full Upcoming and Recent IPOs Calendar

An Anticipated IPO

Atai’s upcoming Nasdaq listing is the newest piece in the puzzle of anticipating what names will dominate the psychedelics market in the years to come.

In November, Thiel Capital, Peter Thiel’s investment firm, invested in the company’s $125-million series C round. 

A March $157-million series D was presented as the largest fundraise in the sector to date.

According to the filing, Atai has raised $362.3 million so far.

MindMed MMEDF, another psychedelics platform company that currently trades over-the-counter and at Toronto’s NEO exchange, filed to uplist to Nasdaq in September, but the listing has yet to be completed.

Atai did not provide an anticipated date for its IPO.

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