Sleepiz, a Zurich-based startup that enables the medical community to take healthcare into people’s homes, announced that it raised CHF 4.4M (approx €4M) in its Series A round of funding.
The round was led by investors including Verve Ventures, ZKB, the venture arm of US health insurance, super angels, and leading healthcare professionals.
“Touching lives without touching”
Founded in 2017 by Marc Rullan, Max Sieghold, and Soumya Sunder Dash, Sleepiz is an ETH spin-off startup that aims to improve people’s lives by creating the future of healthcare. The startup’s first product, Sleepiz One, is a small device that is simply placed next to the patient’s bed.
The device operates in a non-contact fashion and measures movements originating from heart contractions and breathing patterns, as well as body motions with medical-grade accuracy. The company uses wireless millimetre wave technology, sensor fusion, and artificial intelligence to diagnose sleep disorders as well as perform long-term monitoring. This helps patients with chronic diseases to monitor and get early treatment.
Currently, the first customers in Switzerland and India use the Sleepiz One for sleep apnea screenings, a disorder that affects 1 billion people worldwide but of which only 20 per cent are diagnosed.
Speaking on the development, Steffen Wagner, co-CEO of Verve Ventures says, “Sleepiz pursues a compelling vision of making vital sign monitoring touchless, which is a paradigm shift in the industry and paves the way for a new future of healthcare.”
Sleepiz One Connect
The company’s next generation of Sleepiz One, Sleepiz One Connect, integrates additional measurements and an enhanced telehealth platform for more actionable insights.
By remotely monitoring a patient’s respiration rate and patterns together with SpO2 (oxygen saturation) measurements, the Sleepiz telehealth platform can help caregivers identify and act upon patient deterioration before it is too late. Besides, Sleepiz telehealth CARE team is equipped with professionally trained specialists which is another safety layer that helps keeping an eye on the patients 24/7.
The company has successfully completed its clinical investigations in the DACH market and now aims to expand in the rest of Europe and the US.
How will the funds be used?
Sleepiz mentions in a statement that chronic respiratory diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), as well as recently COVID-19, are one of the leading causes of death worldwide. And with continuous remote monitoring and timely interventions, these deaths can be prevented. Hence the raised capital will help the medtech startup to expand its portfolio offerings, such as the Sleepiz One Connect.
Besides, the funds will also enable Sleepiz to classify as a Class IIa medical device under the European medical device regulation. Class IIa devices are those which are installed within the body for only between 60 minutes and 30 days. Examples include hearing aids, blood transfusion tubes, and catheters.
Previous fundings
Previously, Sleepiz raised a pre-Seed round of CHF 300K (approx €278K) and Seed round of approx CHF 1M (approx €959K), which helped them launch Sleepiz One.
Additionally, the company has also received non-dilutive funding of CHF 3M (approx €2.77M) through Innosuisse, Eurostar, H2020, EIT Health, Volkswirtschaftsstiftung, DeVigier, and several other awards. Headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland, Sleepiz AG also has its own subsidiary in Pune, India. The company collaborates closely with leading clinics in Switzerland and Europe.
Brief about ETH Zurich
ETH Zurich is a university for science and technology, and since the 1990s, it has been supporting the founding of companies based on its research achievements. Their aim is to turn such research results into marketable products and to create qualified jobs. Since 1996, the university has produced a total of 380 commercial spin-offs.
