Better Therapeutics Plans to go Public through SPAC Merger 

Digital health startup Better Therapeutics plans to go public through a SPAC merger that would value it at $187 million. The company is currently running a pivotal study to see if its app-based program could be used as a treatment for type 2 diabetes.

Better Therapeutics, which is developing digital therapeutics for patients with chronic conditions, plans to go public in a blank-check deal that would value the startup at $187 million.

It will merge with Mountain Crest Acquisition Corp. II, a publicly-traded company with no assets of its own, to go public. Better Therapeutics expects to raise $113 million through the deal, including $50 million from private investors Farallon Capital Management, RS Investments, Sectoral Asset Management, and Monashee Investment Management.

The merger is expected to close this summer, with the company being listed on Nasdaq under “BTTX.”

San Francisco-based Better Therapeutics was founded in 2015, with the idea of using cognitive behavioral therapy-based programs to address the causes of cardiometabolic disease. It built an app with self-guided therapy lessons and skill modules to change the underlying thoughts and behaviors that contribute to users’ diet and behaviors.

“This is a unique time to build a company like Better Therapeutics. Patients, doctors and insurers have grown increasingly comfortable with digitally delivered solutions, including prescription digital therapeutics, and we are uniquely positioned to change the way some of the most prevalent and costly diseases are treated,” CEO and Co-Founder Kevin Appelbaum said in a news release.

None of its products are on the market yet, but it is currently running a pivotal trial of its digital therapeutic for people with type 2 diabetes. In the future, it plans to seek marketing authorization from the Food and Drug Administration.

Several other digital health startups have turned to SPACs recently as an alternative avenue to the public markets. In the first quarter alone, 10 digital health companies either went public through SPACs or announced plans to do so, according to a recent report from Rock Health. 

The original article can be found at: MedCity News