Why the World’s Top Venture Capitalists Just Bet Big on Nootropics

If money talks, then it’s official: Nootropics (aka “smart drugs”) have gone mainstream. And they’re getting multi-million dollar investments from the world’s most successful venture capitalists.

Mega-successful VC firm Andreessen Horowitz (they’re the people who bet and won big on Facebook, Skype, Airbnb, and dozens of others) just announced a $2 million investment in smart drug startup Nootrobox. Nootropics/smart supplements use single or blends of ingredients to improve cognition, memory, focus, attention, and/or energy. Most of these supplements aren’t prescription drugs, and many are derived from or feature only natural ingredients.

Image Credit: Andreessen Horowitz

But there’s one piece of information you won’t find in news reports on the deal. And it’s something you have to learn from a lot of testing and comparisons of the market’s leading smart drugs.

We’ve reviewed Nootrobox’s products before, and their current lineup — while much-hyped — hasn’t struck us as particularly innovative. Now, they’re not useless stacks from our perspective, but they’re extremely basic in their current form and lack the “oomph” of competing formulations. Our testers were lukewarm on their RISE and SPRINT supplements, and there are other blends we’ve heavily preferred for their effectiveness and value.

To be fair, Nootrobox is pretty transparent with their ingredients, labeling, and dosages, which we appreciate — but they’re definitely not alone in that field, as some of our other reviews cover. And that holds true even for all-natural or earth-grown blends from some other manufacturers, which are also well sourced and transparent.

[Iillustration: Morgan Schweitzer]

But while they might not be the most innovative company in the space just yet, Nootrobox seems eager to use at least some of their new funding to research new stacks and products. Nootrobox’s blog announcement comes at a time when nootropic manufacturers are making big leaps forward in taking their products from niche supplements to worldwide popularity; increasing product diversity and creating supplements that stand as unique will be crucial in that push.

We’ll be monitoring the company (and its competitors) closely, testing out the latest products to see which are actually pushing the envelope on quality and effectiveness.

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