A month after announcing it was seeking strategic alternatives, Akili Interactive, maker of a video game designed to treat ADHD, said it will go private in a merger with Virtual Therapeutics. The deal is expected to net Akili’s shareholders $34 million.
Akili made headlines in 2020 when it received Food and Drug Administration clearance for EndeavorRx, a video game designed to treat pediatric ADHD. Akili went public in 2022 in a deal that valued the company at about $1 billion. But despite several strategic pivots, including shifting to direct-to-consumer sales, the company failed to build a sustainable business model. Akili in April announced it would wind down its existing commercial operations and focus on a licensing deal with Japanese pharma company Shionogi while it figured out the best path forward.
Akili is just one of many health tech companies that are struggling following an explosion of investor interest in digital health during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the last month alone, Better Therapeutics, another company making digital treatments, sold its assets for an undisclosed amount after failing to build a business around its app for type 2 diabetes, and Cue Health, a diagnostics startup, shut down after funding and interest for Covid-19 tests evaporated.
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