Photographer: Daniel Berehulak/Getty Images

A health-care investment firm that’s backing studies of magic mushrooms to treat depression raised $25 million of capital and may consider an initial public offering next year, according to people familiar with the matter.

Atai Life Sciences AG is close to announcing the fundraising with lead backers Christian Angermayer, a German investor, as well as billionaire investor Mike Novogratz and Icelandic entrepreneur Thor Bjorgolfsson, said the people, who asked not to be named because the matter isn’t public yet.

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Source: Bloomberg - by Eyk Henning

Pink oyster mushrooms grown in a ‘mini farm’ unit. Photograph: Hannah Shufro

As well as looking pretty, inventor Smallhold claims its far more sustainable than traditional farming

Diners at the Bunker, a Vietnamese restaurant in Brooklyn, may not realise that the mushrooms in their bánh mì were grown in a blue-tinted, spaceship-looking “mini farm” underneath their seats. But it’s just one of a growing number of plug-in fungi farms mushrooming in New York City.

Smallhold, the company that created the idea, grows around 100 pounds of various mushroom types a week, then distributes them three-quarters grown to climate-controlled, do-it-yourself mini “farms” around the city. The mushrooms finish growing within the automated units, while a remote technician adjusts humidity, airflow and temperature, offering chefs on-the-spot, fresh and self-replenishing batches of a food item that has a short shelf-life.

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Source: The Guardian - Laura Pitcher