Title : From innovation to impact: Accelerating addiction & recovery care
Abstract:
Since its inception in 2023, the One Mind Accelerator has championed bold and determined founders of early-stage startups with the network, education and capital to build category-defining companies that radically improve the lives of people facing mental health challenges.
The Accelerator is an extension of One Mind’s core mission to improve mental health outcomes for individuals, families, and society by harnessing the power of science and lived experience to drive bold research, accelerate innovation, and transform workplaces.
In 2026, the One Mind Accelerator selected its first two companies in the addiction and recovery space, Nosis and Birches Health. Both companies have built digital health platforms that provide access to the kind of short-term and long-term care that is required to treat substance use disorder and behavioral health addictions, like gambling.
In this session you’ll hear from One Mind Accelerator’s Executive Director, Carmine Di Maro, about:
- The innovations happening in the world of addiction medicine - GLP-1s, psychedelics, Orexin Antagonists, NAC, etc.
- Funding mechanisms, including NIDA, SBIR, government grants, family offices, foundations, and venture capital.
- The structural obstacles to addiction innovation such as stigma, lack of investment from pharmaceutical companies, and misaligned reimbursement models.
Prior to his current role at One Mind, Carmine was an investor at Techstars, where he led sourcing and investments across healthcare and emerging industries, and earlier worked at Rock Ventures, driving strategic growth initiatives across portfolio companies. He began his career as a Venture for America Fellow, focused on entrepreneurship as a catalyst for building stronger communities.
Carmine is passionate about accelerating founders who are reimagining how mental health care is delivered, financed, and experienced — shaping a more scalable, equitable, and human-centered future for mental health.
Drawing on his experience as an investor and accelerator leader, Carmine will share lessons for clinicians, researchers, entrepreneurs, and funders working to translate ideas into solutions. The session will highlight how collaboration can close gaps between discovery, investment, implementation, and access.
Carmine is in recovery himself and currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Matthew Perry Foundation.
