Psychedelic Startup The Wake Network Backed Up By an All-Female Mycologist Team

Mycology research and fungus-derived medicinal therapy are quickly catching up with cannabis and existing magic mushrooms research in the psychedelic industry, all to aid the battle against mental health illnesses.

Up-and-coming startup The Wake Network is furthering their research of psychedelic medicine with the help of mycology and fungus-derived therapy for patients fighting mental illnesses such as PTSD, depression, alcoholism, and addictions to opioids to name a few. The Wake Network says that their approach is to advance the field of fungi & plant medicine. The company states that it is built on three pillars: clinical research, wellness professionals, and technology, to assemble a team of leaders and researchers who plan to lead the future of mental and holistic health. The company aims to implement these goals by integrating with a leading cloud based data & clinical trial platform.

Compared to industry competitors, what is unique about The Wake Network is that the company is female-driven and advocates women’s empowerment, inclusion, and diversity. Wake Jamaica is a Joint Venture subsidiary run by Pauline Smith and her group of all-female mycologists and farmers in Jamaica. The company functions with female-led mycology with Smith who’s widely regarded as the “treasure of mushroom cultivation” in Jamaica. Smith teaches women and female-farmers how to cultivate micro-farms and has been growing organic functional and Psilocybin containing mushrooms for 10 years– backed up by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture

Besides inclusion, The Wake Network is also tech-driven.  The company uses AdvancedCare– a leading virtual clinical trial platform, utilized by CROs worldwide for research. AdvancedCare works with a cost-efficient software and hardware platform that provides patient feedback, medication intake, and vitals monitoring all in real-time. As the advance in pharm-tech solutions continues to rise, The Wake Network has made an exclusive agreement with AdvancedCare to further their scientific research, data collection, and communications relating to psilocybin studies.

Although the company is in its early stages, its ambitious business model includes “generating revenue and data from consumer functional mushroom products and clinics to drive R&D and IP on psilocybin medical use.” 

Some products The Wake Network has to offer to the growing functional mushroom market are: 

• Wake Turkey Tail for Immunity Health Support–– powerful antioxidants that may accelerate one’s innate and acquired immune systems
• Cordyceps for Energy and Breath Support–– may improve the way the body uses oxygen  
• Lion’s Mane for Brain Health Support–– which may Increase neural fibers & rescue depleted cells by stimulating Nerve Growth Factor, or NGF

The Wake Network states, “The profound impacts these products have on health and wellness is only recently being understood and studied. We are the only company utilizing advanced fungi research for psilocybin to apply directly to medicinal mushrooms for consumers. All functional mushrooms are organic and grown in the mountains of Jamaica.”

The investor takeaway is that The Wake Network has a given market size of $230.7 billion by 2027 (CAGR 8.25%) for dietary supplements, $4.94 billion by 2027 (CAGR 12.5%( for Nootropics, and $5.8 billion in 2018 CAGR 6.4% through 2024 for functional mushrooms. The Wake Network team consists of industry professionals, researchers, and business experts like  Dr. Olga Chernoloz Ph. D in Neuroscientist Pre-clinical & clinical research, Co-founder and marketing mind Ryan Joseph from Toronto, Ontario, and Riley Cote, a former professional ice hockey player of the NHL among others.