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XMeet the Startup That Wants To Deliver Ketamine to Your Door
David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
Ketamine is on the come up in the pharmaceutical world. Once confined to nightclubs and operating rooms, the drug is quickly gaining recognition as a valuable tool for treating mental health disorders including depression and anxiety.
Amid these rising tides, Wondermed has emerged, offering telehealth consultations and, potentially, the ability to deliver the drug right to your doorstep—all while building out a virtual platform and collecting data on how to use the molecule more effectively.
At the moment, the company provides a mail order service for courses of ketamine lozenges to those who’ve been prescribed the drug along with a telehealth software bridge between doctor and patient. Wondermed currently operates in five states — California, Texas, Florida, New York and Connecticut, though it plans to expand to another eight to 10 states in the next two weeks.
In the long run however, its plans are much bigger than being a link between doctors and patients.
“We generate more than 3,000 data points on every patient that comes into the funnel, and actually receives the medication,” says co-founder & Managing Director Jose Aycart.
His company is building out its online platform to collect and analyze patient data and provide mental health support services that may be useful, regardless of whether or not a patient is taking ketamine.
These data show in granular detail how ketamine therapies work. Does the route of administration matter? Does time of day matter? What types of patients are most likely to experience positive outcomes? It’s this data that represents the biggest business opportunity for Wondermed. The specifics of the monetization are still being worked out, but Aycart says it will never sell anonymized patient data to other companies.
Wondermed is in the midst of a seed funding round, targeting $7 million by the end of the month; It’s raised $5.6 million so far.
The company makes a bit of revenue by charging patients for consultations, but in the event that a patient doesn’t wind up using Wondermed’s platform, the consultation fee is refunded. For patients who are prescribed ketamine, the company charges only as much as the drugs cost them ($249 per month, which includes four doses), so neither Wondermed nor the physicians in its employ are incentivized to over-prescribe.
The drugs themselves are supplied by Tailor Made Compounding, a pharmacy in Nicholasville, Kentucky, and Wondermed is working on additional contracts in the pipeline with several other suppliers.
. Wondermed’s transformation comes as ketamine, which has typically been restricted to use as a general anesthetic, is quickly gaining recognition as a valuable tool for treating mental health disorders like depression and anxiety.
“What I’ve found interesting is how rapidly this field has emerged,” says Steven Grant, a drug and addiction researcher who spent 25 years at the National Institute on Drug Abuse and is now retired.
Ketamine is a simple organic molecule that first gained clinical popularity in the 1960s as an anesthetic. It produces a dissociative state in patients and dulls pain. Once in the bloodstream, the molecule travels to the brain where it binds to a protein called NMDA on the surface of neurons. NMDA has a variety of jobs, but it’s best-known for its role in learning, memory, and neuroplasticity—or the brain’s ability to form new pathways between neurons.
While the research into why ketamine is such an effective treatment for depression and anxiety is ongoing, the consensus so far is that the molecule’s power comes from this ability to rewrite or rewire the brain’s circuitry. If you’ve ever had an anxiety attack or a depressive episode, it can often feel like you’re stuck in a mental loop. Ketamine, it seems, offers a way to break that loop.
“It was this idea that you're increasing your neurological connections in the brain,” says Aycart. “You have the opportunity now to spark new forms of thought, new forms of emotion, or even new ideas.”
Unlike selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and other traditional drugs used to treat depression, ketamine’s effects are fast-acting—often appearing within minutes or hours of administration—and don’t require taking the drug daily.
“It really is revolutionary, and that’s why now more than ever, people are starting to get access to it, and companies like ourselves are really trying to bring it to people as an alternative form of medicine,” says Aycart.
Grant says the rise of ketamine clinics and telehealth services like Wondermed are likely a net positive because they increase patient access to drugs patients need, but he also has reservations about how the therapies are being applied.
Many of these psychoactive drugs—especially ketamine—are intended to be used in tandem with therapy, or at least under the supervision of a trained professional. Increasing the brain’s plasticity is a valuable tool for breaking out of depressive loops, but unless a professional is there to help the patient settle into a healthier mental pattern, the full benefits may be left on the table.
Wondermed offers a variety of supplementary support and strategies along with the drugs themselves, but taking advantage of these tools is left to the patient’s discretion. Grant would like to see a larger focus on extending and expanding that auxiliary support.
The company says it’s focused on building out the platform’s nonmedicinal mental health strategies—things like breathwork, meditation, music therapy—and adding them to an app. If they can get enough people on board, the eventual plan could be to sell health insights back to patients through a subscription model or something similar. They may even patent their own psychedelic molecules in the future. But all of this is likely quite a ways out.
“What we're trying to do is very new, and the landscape yet hasn't been built out,” says Aycart.
Clarification: This story has been updated to clarify Wondermed's monthly rate for ketamine lozenges.
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David Shultz
David Shultz reports on clean technology and electric vehicles, among other industries, for dot.LA. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Outside, Nautilus and many other publications.
Tinder, Starlink, and Apple’s New Studio: This Week in LA
10:27 AM | July 04, 2025
🔦 Spotlight
Happy Independence Day, Los Angeles! 🇺🇸
While you're celebrating freedom, here are some electrifying updates lighting up LA’s tech, satellite, and music scenes:
🔥 Tinder mandates Face Recognition in California
Image Source: Tinder
Tinder is now requiring all new users in California to complete a biometric face check, a brief video selfie processed via FaceTec, to verify profiles are genuine. The video is deleted post-verification, though an encrypted face map remains while the account is active. This West Hollywood based move could redefine trust, safety, and privacy in mainstream consumer apps.
🌐 Starlink clears hurdle to launch in India
Elon Musk’s SpaceX backed Starlink has cleared most regulatory and licensing hurdles with India’s Department of Telecommunications, marking a key step toward launching satellite broadband in one of the world’s fastest growing markets. Final approvals from the national space regulator are pending, and services, expected to deliver high speed connectivity to underserved regions, could launch in the coming months. This is a major milestone for Starlink’s global expansion.
🎧 Apple Music opens Culver City creative hub
Image Source: Apple
Apple Music is celebrating its anniversary by launching a brand new 15,000 square foot, three story studio in Culver City. The facility, featuring a 4,000 square foot soundstage, spatial audio suites, podcast booths, and more, is designed by Eric Owen Moss and slated to open mid August. It solidifies LA’s reputation as a creative powerhouse and reaffirms Apple’s commitment to investing in and nurturing our city's cultural ecosystem.
From dating apps to deep space to sound stages, LA isn’t just watching the future unfold, we’re building it.
Here’s to independence, imagination, and everything this city dares to launch next. Happy Fourth, Los Angeles.
🤝 Venture Deals
LA Companies
- Castelion has raised a $350M Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners alongside Altimeter Capital to scale its hypersonic missile production capabilities. The El Segundo-based defense startup plans to use the funds to expand manufacturing, accelerate testing through its SpaceX-inspired rapid development model, and position itself as a cost-effective supplier of hypersonic weapons to the U.S. military and its allies. - learn more
- Earth Sama, a Calabasas, California–based climate-tech platform that helps rural farming and Indigenous communities generate and manage carbon credits, secured investment from Omtse Ventures. The funding will support the rollout of Earth Sama’s blockchain-powered field app, climate-creator platform, and smart-contract tools to scale community-led carbon credit projects globally under the Paris Agreement’s Article 6.4 framework. - learn more
LA Venture Funds
- Plassa Capital participated in Metafide’s $3.275M funding round. Miami based Metafide, the creator of SURGE, a gamified trading platform that combines AI neural networks and human insight, will use the funds to scale and launch SURGE into the market. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated as a founding investor in Syntis Bio’s $33M Series A round, with an additional $5M in NIH grants. The Boston-based biotech is developing oral therapies for obesity and rare diseases, and the funding will help advance its SYNT platform, moving its lead obesity treatment, SYNT-101, into Phase 1 trials and supporting development of SYNT-202 for homocystinuria. - learn more
- BAM Ventures participated in Cred’s $15M seed round for its predictive intelligence startup. San Francisco based Cred uses AI to unify company data with real time market signals and deliver actionable insights for sales and operations. The funding, led by defy.vc, will be used to scale Cred’s platform, expand its customer base, and grow team and product capabilities. - learn more
- BOLD Capital Partners participated in Gallant’s $18M Series B round to advance its ready-to-use stem cell therapies for pets. The funding, led by Digitalis Ventures with additional support from NovaQuest Capital, will help Gallant bring its off-the-shelf regenerative treatments to market. - learn more
- Rebel Fund joined the seed round for Rocketable, contributing to the $6.5M raised to build a portfolio of fully automated SaaS companies. San Francisco-based Rocketable, backed by True Ventures and others, uses AI agents to operate acquired software products, and Rebel’s support will help scale both the platform and acquisitions. - learn more
LA Exits
- Leasepath, a cloud-first provider of equipment lease and loan management software, has been acquired by Solifi to enhance its mid-market offerings. The deal allows Solifi to expand Leasepath’s Microsoft Dynamics-based platform into new global markets while keeping Leasepath’s team and leadership in place. - learn more
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Facing Plunging Revenue, Sweetgreen Lays Off 10% of Staff At Its L.A. Headquarters (Exclusive)
03:48 PM | April 17, 2020
Sweetgreen, the trendy fast casual salad chain that is now beset by plunging revenue amid a shutdown of in-store dining, has cut 10% of the 350 employees at its Culver City headquarters, dot.LA has learned.
Dozens of terminated workers were read a pre-written script at the end of last month and were then logged-out of their Slack and email accounts. "They blindsided us and they weren't transparent," said a former employee, who declined to be identified because Sweetgreen made him sign a nondisclosure agreement. "It was disappointing."
The former employee said he was surprised to be terminated soon after he and others had been assured by executives that Sweetgreen was adapting to the post Covid-19 era relatively well and their jobs would be safe. "This came out of nowhere," he said.
A Sweetgreen spokeswoman confirmed the layoffs but declined to provide any details. Earlier this month the Spoon, a food tech website, reported that Derek Pietz, former head of automation, and Ken Cottle, who had been director of engineering, were among those laid off.
The restaurant industry has been devastated by the novel Coronavirus, but tech-forward Sweetgreen would seem to be much better positioned than most to survive. It was one of the first fast casual chains to let people order ahead on an app in 2013 and even before the crisis 55% of its orders were made online.
However, consumers under financial strain might decide paying $13 for a salad is a luxury they can forgo. After the pandemic, app order volume fell by two-thirds, according to a former employee (Sweetgreen declined to comment). It doesn't help that much of the company's business was geared towards offices that are now closed and that a major initiative was expanding its Outpost program where couriers could leave dozens of salads in workplaces and apartment buildings.
Before the pandemic, Sweetgreen had opened 700 Outposts since launching the program in 2018, but now they are shuttered.
The company told dot.LA it redirected Outpost employees to a new collaboration with World Central Kitchen and the celebrity chef Jose Andres called Impact Outpost that aims to supply 100,000 free salads and bowls to hospital workers. Sweetgreen says it has already delivered 10,000 meals.
Co-founders Nicolas Jammet and Jonathan Neman in front of their Dupont Circle Sweetgreen restaurant, 2014.
"As we continue to navigate COVID-19, our mission remains the same — to connect people to real food," the company said in a statement. "We've implemented additional safety and sanitation guidelines including face masks and wellness checks for team members, tamper-proof seals on bowls and bags, as well as contact-free delivery for peace of mind."
Since its founding in Washington D.C. in 2007, Sweetgreen has been on a lofty trajectory that valued it more like a tech company than a restaurant chain. Last year, the company raised $150 million of Series I venture funding at a $1.45 billion pre-money valuation, according to Pitchbook.
In a lengthy New York Times profile earlier this year, founder and CEO Jonathan Neman said his goal was to grow the number of stores by 35% to 40% a year and expand to 1,000 locations. He also predicted an IPO should happen "eventually, probably, at some point."From Your Site Articles
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- Sweetgreen CEO Jonathan Neman on How It's Adapting to COVID - dot.LA ›
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- Sweetgreen's IPO Filing Reveals Recent Revenue Gains - dot.LA ›
- Sweetgreen's Closely Watched IPO Builds Up a Big NYSE Debut - dot.LA ›
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Ben Bergman
Ben Bergman is the newsroom's senior finance reporter. Previously he was a senior business reporter and host at KPCC, a senior producer at Gimlet Media, a producer at NPR's Morning Edition, and produced two investigative documentaries for KCET. He has been a frequent on-air contributor to business coverage on NPR and Marketplace and has written for The New York Times and Columbia Journalism Review. Ben was a 2017-2018 Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Economic and Business Journalism at Columbia Business School. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, playing poker, and cheering on The Seattle Seahawks.
https://twitter.com/thebenbergman
ben@dot.la
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