Mental health is in crisis. At the same time, neuroscience and neurotechnology are evolving faster than most healthcare systems can absorb. Between psychedelics, non‑invasive deep brain stimulation and neuro‑AI, it’s easy to feel like we’re on the brink of something big – and also a little lost.

In Episode 22 of the ReeThink Podcast, Rudi sat down with Joao, physician‑turned‑neuroscience investor  at re.Mind Capital, to unpack why he believes we’re at the beginning of a massive wave of innovation in brain health – and how founders can build the next generation of neurotech and mental health companies.

oao started on the clinical side. He trained in medicine, worked in psychiatry and neuroscience, and spent years inside academic research. Over time, he became frustrated by how long it took for promising science to reach real patients. Traditional funding cycles moved slowly. Translational gaps were huge.

Venture capital became his answer.
Through re.Mind Capital, Joao now backs founders at the intersection of:

• Neurotechnology – devices that read from and write to the brain.

• Novel therapeutics – from psychedelics to next‑generation psychiatric and neurological drugs.

• Digital mental health and care models – software and infrastructure that actually deliver these tools at scale.

His core bet is simple but bold: brain health is becoming a strategic asset class – for individuals, healthcare systems and entire economies.

Over the last few years, “brain capital” and the “brain economy” have gone from academic slogans to policy talking points at places like Davos.

A few forces are converging:

• Rising mental health burden: Depression, anxiety and substance use remain among the top drivers of disability worldwide, yet access to care is limited and often ineffective.

• Ageing populations: Neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s are growing in prevalence and cost.

• Attention and cognition: In an AI‑augmented economy, cognitive performance, focus and resilience become harder to ignore as economic variables, not just personal concerns.

For Joao, this makes brain health less of a “cost centre” and more like critical infrastructure. That’s why re.Mind invests not just in individual drugs or devices, but in full‑stack brain health plays that can affect outcomes across diagnosis, treatment and long‑term functioning.

Joao’s journey into this space was shaped early by psychedelic research. He saw the potential of substances like psilocybin and MDMA for treatment‑resistant depression, PTSD and other severe conditions – but also the limitations of building a fund purely around psychedelics.

Over time, re.Mind’s thesis expanded into three overlapping pillars:

• Psychedelics and novel therapeutics
  High‑effect‑size interventions that can help patients where traditional SSRIs and talk therapy have failed, combined with new mechanisms in psychiatry and neurology.

• Neurotechnology and neuromodulation
  Tools that can directly modulate brain circuits, from non‑invasive stimulation to next‑gen brain‑computer interface platforms.

• Digital mental health infrastructure
  Software, data and workflow tools that make these interventions deliverable at scale, not just in a handful of specialist clinics.

This broader lens lets re.Mind back companies that will benefit from – and also drive – the coming wave of interventional psychiatry.

One of the most exciting parts of the conversation was Joao’s view on non‑invasive deep brain stimulation (DBS).

Today, tools like TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) already offer non‑invasive ways to modulate cortical activity and treat depression or OCD. But TMS mostly targets superficial brain regions. The next wave aims deeper.

Joao highlights two emerging modalities:

• Low‑intensity focused ultrasound (LIFU):
  Uses acoustic energy to modulate activity in deep structures like the thalamus or basal ganglia without surgery, opening possibilities for conditions ranging from depression to movement disorders.

• Temporal interference (TI) stimulation:
  Applies overlapping high‑frequency currents that interfere to create a low‑frequency envelope in specific deep brain targets, while largely sparing overlying cortex.

These technologies could, in theory, deliver DBS‑like precision without an implant – making it much easier to scale interventional treatments and to iterate on protocols.

Joao sees this as a key path toward precision psychiatry: moving from “let’s try this antidepressant and see what happens” to circuit‑level interventions guided by imaging, EEG and behavioural data.

Not all neurotech is built the same. Joao breaks down commercialisation paths into three broad buckets:

• Invasive BCI (brain‑computer interfaces):

  • High risk, high reward.

  • Strongest fit where the benefit‑risk ratio is obvious: severe paralysis, locked‑in syndrome, advanced ALS.

  • Heavy regulatory and surgical burden, but potentially transformative outcomes.

• Non‑invasive devices and neuromodulation:

  • Lower risk profile, easier to trial and iterate.

  • Attractive for depression, OCD, chronic pain and cognitive disorders.

  • Increasingly enabled by better hardware, imaging and AI‑driven signal processing.

• Digital and hybrid models:

  • Apps, platforms and services that wrap around drugs and devices.

  • Use data, coaching and protocols to improve adherence and outcomes.

  • Easier to ship and to adapt, but also more crowded and commoditised.

Joao tends to favour clinical‑first strategies – building credibility and regulatory assets before going “downmarket” to consumer applications. In his view, this creates more durable moats and reduces the risk of neurotech being dismissed as wellness gadgets.

Another big theme in the episode is the emerging field of neuro‑AI.

This plays out in two directions:

• Using neuroscience to build better AI:

  • Studying how human and animal brains represent the world, compress information and generalise.

  • Translating those principles into more robust, sample‑efficient and safer AI architectures, especially as current large language models hit scaling and energy limits.

• Using AI to decode the brain:

  • Applying machine learning to EEG, fMRI and neuromodulation data to identify patterns humans would miss.

  • Optimising stimulation protocols, predicting treatment response and discovering new biomarkers for mental health and cognition.

For Joao, this tight loop between neural data and AI models is where some of the most interesting value will be created in the next decade – especially for founders working at the junction of BCI, cognitive AI tools and clinical neurotech.

Perhaps the most provocative part of Joao’s thesis is his view on how mental health care will actually scale.

He’s clear that:

• One‑to‑one psychotherapy is valuable but inherently limited in scalability.

• Traditional small‑effect‑size antidepressants and anxiolytics are not enough on their own.

• The global burden of mental illness demands higher‑effect‑size tools that can be deployed more systematically.

He expects the next decade to be defined by what you might call interventional mental health, combining:

• Psychedelic‑assisted therapies with robust protocols and integration.

• Non‑invasive neuromodulation (TMS, LIFU, TI and beyond).

• Novel pharmacology with clearer mechanisms and biomarkers.

• Digital infrastructure that makes all of this delivered, measured and improved in the real world.

For founders, that means opportunity – but also responsibility. Building in this space is not just about apps and engagement. It’s about changing brain circuits and lives.

If you’re building at the intersection of neuroscience, technology and mental health, Episode 22 is a masterclass in how one of the leading neuro VCs sees the landscape – and where he believes the next generation of category‑defining companies will come from.