Payton Nyquvest is the Co-founder, Chairman, and CEO of Numinus, a publicly-traded wellness provider based in Vancouver, Canada. Numinus’ services include psychedelic pharmaceutical supply, research and development into therapeutic approaches, practitioner training, and delivery of in-person and online therapy.
In a December 2019 interview on Third Wave Podcast, Nyquvest shared his path toward psychedelic therapy work. His mother struggled with addiction and Nyquvest had not reconciled with the effects on his mental health. In his teen years, a DUI (Driving Under the Influence) accident compelled Nyquvest to work on himself and cultivate his wellness through yoga, talk therapy, and other conventional modalities.
Around that time, a lifetime of chronic illness also came to a head with frequent hospitalizations. During an episode in the trauma ward, more than a year into researching psychedelics, Nyquvest decided he needed to pursue a different strategy toward healing. He sought an ayahuasca experience in Costa Rica that ended up being “the first time that [he had] gotten relief from…physical symptoms in [his] life.”
Prior to launching Numinus, Nyquvest spent 15 years working in corporate finance across multiple industries. According to his bio on Numinus’ website, Nyquvest “has raised over $100 million for 100+ public and private companies.” After a decade of investment advising, he became the Vice President and Director of Mackie Research Capital’s sales team. He earned an associate certificate in financial management and planning from the British Columbia Institute of Technology in 2008.
In August 2018, Nyquvest founded Numinus with Stacey Wallin, the company’s CSO. Numinus acquired Mindspace in December 2020, and now runs three clinics in Canada. Its Vancouver site is supporting clinical trials of MDMA for PTSD in collaboration with MAPS and psilocybin-assisted therapy for substance use in collaboration with Syreon.
Regarding Numinus’ partnerships, Nyqvest told Shadd Dales of The Dales Report, “We want to make sure that everything, every dollar we’re spending, is being informed by what is going to be coming in terms of regulation…We’re talking about changing the healthcare system. This is going to take more than a handful of Canadian public companies to make this happen. The more we can collaborate, work together, and use resources intelligently, the bigger impact we’re going to be able to make.”
Numinus earned Health Canada’s approval to cultivate Psilocybe mushrooms for research in June 2020. Psychedelic Science Review covered Numinus’ inaugural cultivation that October.
Nyquvest told Steven Singh of Financial Post, “We intend to prove a theory similar to the entourage effect in cannabis, in which THC is complemented by various cannabinoids and terpenes for increased therapeutic effect…So, in this case, psilocybin could be complemented by other compounds in mushrooms and may offer untold health benefits and therapeutic opportunities.”
Nyquvest has made a number of other media interview appearances, including on Psychedelic Spotlight, Psychedelic Investor, and Conversations that Matter.