What Mindstate Design Labs does

Mindstate Design Labs is a clinical-stage AI neuroengineering platform and drug development company founded in 2021 and headquartered in South San Francisco. The company's core technology, the Osmanthus platform, applies multi-agent large language models, custom embedding models, Bayesian neural networks, and biomedical knowledge graph analysis to a proprietary dataset of more than 60,000 human reports of psychoactive drug effects, synthesizing subjective phenomenology with biochemical data to identify how specific neurotransmitter receptor combinations produce distinct emotional and cognitive states. Using these predictions, the company designs novel psychoactive compounds intended to induce precise therapeutic mental states — without the hallucinations associated with traditional psychedelic therapies — for psychiatric indications with high unmet medical need.

The company's lead asset is MSD-001, a proprietary oral formulation of 5-MeO-MiPT (a 5-HT2A agonist and neuroplastogen) intended to serve as a neutral psychoactive base for fixed-dose combinations targeting specific states such as empathy, awe, and enhanced aesthetic perception. MSD-001 completed a first-in-human Phase I study in September 2025, demonstrating safety, tolerability, dose-proportional linear pharmacokinetics, and the first clinical validation of the Osmanthus platform's design predictions. Additional programs include MSD-X02 (a novel CNS target series) and MSD-XXX (future high-throughput screening programs). The FDA approved an AI-designed clinical trial of MSD-001 in September 2024.

Mindstate operates as a pre-revenue clinical-stage biotech. It has no commercial products and no disclosed pricing; revenue is expected to flow from prescription drug sales through traditional pharmaceutical distribution channels upon FDA approval. Capital to date totals approximately $24.3 million across a $11.5 million seed round (February 2022, led by Initialized Capital with Y Combinator, Metaplanet, Day One Ventures, and high-profile angels including founders of OpenAI, Neuralink, Instacart, Coinbase, and Twitch), an additional ~$12.7 million round (November 2024), Y Combinator's standard investment, and smaller accelerator tranches. The team of approximately 16 includes executives with prior FDA approvals for CNS products such as LATUDA and FINTEMPLA.

Name

Mindstate Design Labs

Legal name

Mindstate Design Labs Inc.

Website

https://mindstate.design

Company type

Private

Founded year

2021

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Mindstate Design Labs is a clinical-stage AI neuroengineering platform that designs novel psychoactive therapeutics for psychiatric indications, using its Osmanthus platform to map neurotransmitter interactions underlying specific mental states. Its lead asset, MSD-001, completed Phase I trials in September 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Psychiatric Pharmaceuticals

NAICS

Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714), Scientific Research and Development Services (5417)

SIC

Pharmaceutical Preparations (2834), Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

AI/ML Platforms for Drug Discovery & Experiment Optimization (HLAGAJAO)

akta.pro secondary industry

Target Identification & Validation Platforms (omics-driven, chemoproteomics, genetic validation) (HLAAAIAI)

Keywords

• AI drug discovery
• Psychedelic therapeutics
• Neuroengineering platform
• Psychiatric pharmaceuticals
• Psychoactive compound design

Headquarters

HQ city

South San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Supply Chain, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Pharmaceutical Drug Sales: Once regulatory approval is obtained, the company plans to commercialize its proprietary drug compounds through traditional pharmaceutical distribution channels. Revenue will come from prescription drug sales for psychiatric indications.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Mindstate Design Labs is a clinical-stage AI neuroengineering platform and drug development company. Its Osmanthus platform uses AI/ML to map the biological basis of emotion, perception, and cognition by synthesizing 60,000 human reports of psychoactive drug effects with biochemical data. The company develops proprietary pharmaceutical compounds — led by MSD-001, a 5-MeO-MiPT-based neuroplastogen — designed as neutral psychoactive bases for fixed-dose combinations targeting psychiatric indications.

Product overview

Mindstate Design Labs is a clinical-stage AI neuroengineering platform company operating as a platform-plus-pipeline architecture. The core Osmanthus platform maps molecular biology underlying emotion, perception, and cognition to identify neurotransmitter interactions producing distinct mental states. The platform supports multiple drug programs: MSD-001 (lead asset, proprietary oral formulation of 5-MeO-MiPT) serves as a neutral psychoactive base for fixed-dose combinations targeting psychiatric conditions; MSD-X02 acts on novel CNS targets; and MSD-XXX future programs use high-throughput screening for broader psychoactive effect optimization. The company progressed MSD-001 into human studies to demonstrate precision-designed therapeutic states.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Osmanthus Platform AI-powered neuroengineering platform that maps how specific neurotransmitter receptor combinations produce distinct emotional and cognitive states, supporting internal drug discovery and pipeline development for psychiatric indications.
• MSD-001 (Lead Asset) Proprietary oral pharmaceutical formulation of 5-MeO-MiPT (a 5-HT2A agonist and neuroplastogen) designed as a neutral psychoactive base to temporarily enable significant emotional and cognitive flexibility, under clinical evaluation for psychiatric indications.
• MSD-X02 Program Series Pipeline program series targeting a novel CNS target to produce select psychoactive effects, intended for therapeutic applications in psychiatry.
• MSD-XXX Future Programs Pipeline of future development programs derived from high-throughput Osmanthus screening, optimizing single-molecule, multi-target candidates for broader psychoactive effect profiles.
• MSD-001 Fixed-Dose Combination Programs Fixed-dose combination pharmaceutical products using MSD-001 as a neutral psychoactive base, each designed to reliably induce a specific therapeutic state (e.g., empathy, awe, enhanced aesthetic perception) for psychiatric indications.

Quantifiable outcome

• Phase I trial confirmed MSD-001 was safe and well-tolerated across dose ranges with no hallucinations and no serious adverse events
• +2 more outcomes

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability7 records

Feature3 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Mind Medicine (MindMed): Public clinical-stage biotech developing psychedelic-inspired therapeutics for psychiatric conditions. Directly comparable in target indication space (anxiety, depression) and use of tryptamine-class molecules; Mindstate's CSO previously led global development at MindMed.
• Compass Pathways: Public clinical-stage company developing psilocybin-based therapies for treatment-resistant depression. Competes in the same psychedelic-psychiatry category with substantially more capital and Phase IIb/III data already generated; a key benchmark for Mindstate's regulatory and commercial trajectory.
• atai Life Sciences: Public clinical-stage biotech with a platform of psychedelic and non-psychedelic mental health therapies. Comparable in psychiatric indication focus and platform-plus-pipeline model, with significantly greater funding and a broader pipeline.
• Cybin: Clinical-stage psychedelic therapeutics company developing deuterated tryptamine analogs for depression and other psychiatric indications. Comparable mechanism space (5-HT2A agonists) and similar strategy of designing novel chemical entities inspired by psychedelics.
• GH Research: Clinical-stage biotech developing mebufotenin (5-MeO-DMT) for treatment-resistant depression. Directly comparable in 5-MeO-tryptamine mechanism and depression indication; serves as a near-mechanistic reference for MSD-001's regulatory and clinical readouts.
• Beckley Psytech: Clinical-stage psychedelic medicine company developing short-duration psychedelic compounds for neuropsychiatric conditions. Comparable in pursuing intermittent-dosing psychedelic-inspired therapeutics with patient-access-friendly pharmacokinetics.
• Small Pharma: Clinical-stage biotech developing DMT-based therapies for major depressive disorder. Comparable target indication and psychedelic-inspired approach; useful peer for evaluating clinical-trial design and regulatory engagement strategies.

Broad incumbents

• Recursion Pharmaceuticals: Public AI-driven drug discovery company with a platform-plus-pipeline model across multiple therapeutic areas. Comparable in using AI/ML to systematically generate drug candidates, but operates at much greater scale and broader therapeutic scope than Mindstate's psychiatric focus.
• Schrödinger: Public computational drug discovery company combining physics-based modeling with ML. Comparable in using advanced computational chemistry to design novel compounds, though Schrödinger's platform is more general-purpose and serves external clients plus internal pipeline.
• Insitro: Clinical-stage AI-native drug discovery company applying ML to generative biology and chemistry. Comparable in platform-plus-pipeline AI-drug-discovery model, though Insitro has progressed to multiple clinical candidates with substantially greater funding.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/MindstateDesign
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/mindstate-design-labs

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles15 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors16 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Mindstate Design Labs