Shutterstock founder, former Uber exec lead investment in Miami-based wellness startup
A common gripe about Miami’s tech moment is that it is not benefiting longtime Miami entrepreneurs.
A local startup hoping to break ground using psychedelic drugs to treat mental illness is taking one step toward changing that narrative.
NUE Life, founded by longtime Miami entrepreneurs Juan Pablo Cappello and Demian Bellumio, announced Thursday it had raised more than $3 million from investors who have recently arrived in Miami, including Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer’s Pareto investment group and former Uber executive Shervin Pishevar.
In an interview, Cappello, who co-founded LAB Miami Ventures, said NUE hoped to use psychedelics as a jumping-off point for creating an entire mental wellness company.
“We’re willing to use evidence-based, emerging therapies ... and start looking with an open mind at what promising therapies there are around psychedelics,” Cappello said. “While [we are] going to be legally compliant, [we will] leverage as many emerging technologies as possible.”
An increasing number of investors see psychedelics as the next big bio-pharmaceutical gold mine. In April, South Florida attorney Dustin Robinson announced he was forming an investment firm to deploy capital into the space. Famed tech investor Peter Thiel has announced investments in at least two companies using drugs like ketamine, MDMA and psilocybin to treat conditions like depression, anxiety and addiction.
“We don’t view those molecules as panaceas that heal, but we do think they can really accelerate healing, or allow someone who isn’t able to heal to find a path toward wellness,” Cappello said.
As part of Thursday’s announcement, NUE Life said it has acquired My Ketamine Home, which is licensed to administer the hallucinogenic in clinical settings in states including Florida and Texas.
Bellumio, who will also serve as NUE Life’s chief technology officer, is overseeing the creation of NUE Life’s app, a key component of which will be music that accompanies a drug’s user on their journey.
“The medical practitioners see the music component as not only making a playlist to have a good time and enjoy the experience, but touch someone’s life by being able to give them the right music at the right point of time in therapy,” Bellumio said.
“In NUE Life we saw an opportunity to invest in medically supervised alternative medicine delivery that is legal and tested to help those patients with chronic, debilitating mental health issues not helped by traditional pharmaceutical solutions,” said venture capitalist Pishevar in a statement. “This important work builds on the innovative research being done domestically at Johns Hopkins, as well as other globally recognized research institutions. I believe NUE Life’s digital platform will democratize access to powerful mental wellness tools to heal trauma and build resilience.”
More information can be found at www.nue.life
This story has been corrected to show Cappello founded LAB Miami Ventures, not The LAB Miami.
This story was originally published June 3, 2021 at 9:00 AM.
