Kasvu Therapeutics Raises €30M for Next Generation Neuroplasticity Drugs

HELSINKI – Kasvu Therapeutics, a three-year-old spinout from the University of Helsinki, closed a €30 million Series A to advance its lead compound toward clinical development. The round was led by Hadean Ventures, with participation from Tesi (Finnish Industry Investment), the Finnish Drug Discovery Center, Innovestor Life Science Fund, Stephen Industries, and existing backers Nordic Science Investments and Helsinki University Funds.

The company is developing small-molecule drugs that target TrkB [a receptor governing the brain’s capacity for neural adaptation] using the same binding pocket occupied by LSD and psilocybin. The stated goal is to reproduce the neuroplasticity benefits of psychedelics without activating the serotonin receptor 5-HT2A, which drives their hallucinogenic effects.

That approach draws from a landmark 2023 study in Nature Neuroscience, which found that LSD and psilocin bind to TrkB with affinities roughly 1,000 times higher than conventional antidepressants and that the antidepressant-like effects work independently of 5-HT2A activation.

Kasvu’s lead candidate, KTX-0141, is designed to selectively amplify the brain’s endogenous BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) signaling rather than activating TrkB wholesale. Preclinical data show enhanced TrkB signaling, robust structural neuroplasticity, a favorable drug-like profile, and no hallucinogenic activity in standard preclinical models. Phase 1 trials targeting major depressive disorder (MDD) are scheduled to begin in H2 2027.

The unmet need underpinning this work is significant. Depression affects an estimated 322 million people worldwide, and approximately 31% of treated patients in the U.S. never achieve adequate relief from first- and second-line medications. Kasvu’s longer-term ambition is to develop a treatment suitable for at-home administration, removing the in-clinic supervision requirement that currently restricts access to psychedelic-based therapies for most patients.

Georgina Askeland, incoming board member from Hadean Ventures, outlined the investor case succinctly: psychedelic clinical data has shown that engaging neuroplasticity can deliver fast and durable results where decades of monoamine-based drugs have come up short. Kasvu, in her view, is built to deliver that biology to patients who cannot access a supervised in-clinic psychedelic experience.

This raise reflects the progress that psychedelic therapeutics has made over the years – a credible clinical path that isolates the therapeutic core of psychedelics from the hallucinogenic experience, and from the regulatory and logistical friction that comes attached to it. If KTX-0141 holds up in humans the way it has in preclinical models, it could set a new benchmark for what a psychedelic-inspired drug actually looks like at scale.