A few days ago, Bloomberg told the story of a German investor who made billions investing in bitcoin and other high-risk assets.
What’s more curious, however, is that Christian Angermayer claims that the turning point in his investing career came from taking psychedelics.
In fact, Angermayer told Bloomberg that hallucinogenic mushrooms were “the single most meaningful thing I’ve ever done in my whole life”, since they somehow led him to invest in frontier ventures, from cryptocurrencies to space travel, from psychedelic substances to life extension.
In short, over the past 12 months, he has made his fortune during the great bullish market by investing in risky and bizarre assets.
This has been done through his Apeiron Investment Group, which has been the lead investor in seven companies that have gone public, raising more than $1 billion in all. In addition, there are ten other companies in Apeiron’s portfolio that are in the process of going public this year.
Angermayer and the billions with bitcoin
Angermayer says he only invests in what he is very curious and passionate about, and cultivates relationships with some of the world’s most influential investors, including Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and Peter Thiel. Mike Novogratz even calls him “the best networker I’ve ever met”.
Apeiron now has $2.5 billion in assets, half of which are Angermayer’s, and the fund has averaged an annual return of more than 50% over the past ten years. Among its recently listed companies are Compass Pathways Plc, a pharmaceutical startup developing a treatment for depression based on the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, and AbCellera Biologics Inc, which co-developed a combination antibody drug for Covid-19.
In addition, a psychedelic-focused biotechnology company founded with Thiel’s backing, Atai Life Sciences, was recently valued at $2 billion and filed its IPO on Tuesday.
Although not all of its investments have proved profitable, overall Angermayer’s choices have been decidedly good, especially thanks to the 2020 bullish market.
According to Peter Thiel, it is curiosity that allows Angermayer to identify new trends very early on, or to invent an entire industry.
Angermayer’s first psychedelic ‘trip’ was in 2015 in the Caribbean (where it is legal), and he claims to have experienced a moment of profound insight there that led him to finally understand Bitcoin.
