The One Mind Catalyst fund comprises charitable donations that invest in for-profit companies to further knowledge, treatment and cures for brain health issues. Launched in 2019 with support from key One Mind Board Directors and industry advisors, the mission of One Mind Catalyst is to accelerate the number and scale of companies building real-world solutions to address brain health.
The Problem:
Brain health is an incredibly complicated topic, often involving deep research expertise. While ‘wellness’ products are well-served by traditional venture capital, many core brain health founders are poorly served by VC. Further, these founders (and potential founders) are often life-long researchers and lack many of the entrepreneurial and company-building skills they need to translate their research into scaled solutions that can impact the most lives.
Strategy and Investments:
One Mind Catalyst (“the Fund”) invests in mental and behavioral health projects that have the potential to mature into small to large companies and that fill a gap between the discovery of promising diagnostic tools and treatments and the work needed to implement and evaluate them in real-world health care settings. In some cases, this may involve projects that leverage public-private partnerships and fill crucial gaps or support innovative, impactful enhancements. Basic, discovery science is outside of the scope of the Fund. The Fund has a return objective of 1x and will serve as an evergreen fund. All potential profits from the Fund will be re-distributed to the Fund to allow for additional investments in the future. If the purpose of the Fund shall subsequently be determined to be unattainable or legally impermissible, One Mind may modify the purpose of the Fund to remove the barriers to its successful utilization; provided, that the principal and income therefrom shall be utilized as closely as possible to the original purpose of the Fund, that all other terms of this Donation Agreement shall remain unchanged. Projects will involve small molecule drugs, biologics, devices, diagnostics, and digital health tools and will be in their development of moving toward the patient. As of late 2021, the Fund has made three investments, each of which has already achieved a significant multiple in valuation although all are still private and illiquid.
Terms and “Evergreen” Approach
The Fund has an indefinite term and is open to new donations with a minimum amount of $250,000 throughout its term on such intervals as One Mind shall determine appropriate. All proceeds realized from the Fund’s investments will be reinvested as One Mind determines appropriate, with the aim of investing in additional mental and behavioral health research, treatments, and cures in the future. Unlike other impact funds, there will be no “carry”. Administrative costs of the fund will be maintained at or below 15% of the Fund’s total capital and may include in that amount a return to One Mind to offset its administrative burden.