Deepak Chopra, founder of the Chopra Foundation and Chopra Global, spoke at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, on October 18, 2021.
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The Healing Company, a new business created to acquire consumer health brands, is backed by wellness icon Deepak Chopra, psychedelic entrepreneur Christian Angermeier and Dragons’ Den investor Stephen Bartlett.
Healing Company, which gives Chopra a stake in the business in exchange for his time and advice, aims to purchase and scale 15 healthcare brands directly to consumers over the next three years, focusing on holistic medicine and supplements.
“The Healing Company is a team of entrepreneurs, destroyers, healers, leaders and notables from across Europe and the United States,” CEO Simon Belsham told CNBC on Friday. “We all have a common goal to deal with the health crisis we are in today.”
Chopra, who has agreed to become chief scientific adviser to The Healing Company, told CNBC he decided to join after meeting with Belsham in one of his retreats, which focus on attention, relaxation and meditation.
“For the last 45 years, I’ve been focusing on integrated health and well-being and I thought they had a great business plan to acquire more companies,” Chopra said in an interview Monday. “I decided I could help them with the scientific validation of products and services.”
Founded by Belsham and Annabel Oelman, The Healing Company plans to acquire brands of nutrients (substances believed to provide medical and health benefits) and food products that address areas such as immunity, longevity, inflammation, sleep and sleep. stress management. However, Chopra said the markets in which these products fit are full of fraudulent products.
“The problem is that every celebrity you can name is creating their own food and there is no longer any credibility for that, so there needs to be some scientific evidence,” Chopra said, adding that his team at the Chopra Non-Profit Foundation will review existing research before advising The Healing Company whether to acquire a brand.
In addition to nutraceuticals and food, The Healing Company should consider psychedelics, Chopra said, adding that ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin (the hallucinogenic compound found in magic mushrooms) may play a role in treating mental health problems.
“I would encourage them to explore the psychedelic arena because this is one of my areas of experience,” said Chopra, who is also a partner at companies like Fitbit.
The investor’s view
Angermeier, co-founder of psychiatric startup ATAI Life Sciences, and Bartlett secured a stake in The Healing Company by participating in its initial $ 10 million round, which also attracted investment from Hong Kong-based real estate billionaire Goodwin Gow and founder of Avant Global Demetri Argyropoulos.
The initial round is expected to be complemented by an expected $ 75 million loan facility from technology investor i80 Group.
The assessment of the company has not been announced.
Angermeier, a friend of Palantir co-founder and well-known libertarian Peter Thiel, is investing through his private equity firm, Apeiron Investment Group.
“I invested in The Healing Company because I love the mission,” Angermeier told CNBC on Monday. “I want to be part of the great endeavor to make the world a happier and healthier place.”
Dragons’ star Den Bartlett, who co-founded social media group The Social Chain before taking on the podcast “The Diary of a CEO”, took a place on the board of The Healing Company with Chopra Foundation CEO Poonacha Machaiah.
Stephen Bartlett founded the social media marketing agency Social Chain at the age of 22 and created the popular podcast The Diary of a CEO.
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“I went on a personal trip to realize that the one-dimensional approach to treating the disease is clearly not working,” Bartlett told CNBC on Monday. “The approach of hitting a mole, throwing the drug in it does not work.”
Over the past five years, people have begun to view the treatment of diseases as more “holistic and round,” Bartlett said, adding that they are increasingly seen as “spiritual” in some scenarios.
“We need to take more alternative approaches to treatment, because our existing box of drugs or therapies obviously doesn’t reduce it,” Bartlett said.
He added that he was now looking at Dragons’ Den companies “through the lens of The Healing Company’s proposal”.
“As I begin filming next season, which is about a month away, I will be looking for many businesses that I think could work for The Healing Company,” Bartlett said.