Venture capitalists are starting to see the benefits of artificial intelligence applied to more real-world problems. Eight Sleep, which manufactures smart mattresses and covers for regular mattresses, has raised $86 Million in Series C funding.
Valor Equity Partners, the firm that has backed SpaceX, Tesla, GoPuff, and many other tech companies, is leading this latest investment. SoftBank Ventures, Khosla Ventures and Founders Fund are also participating. A lot of well-known individuals, including athletes Alex Rodriguez, Kris Bryant, and J.D., are also involved. Martinez, Kevin Hart and Sophia Amorouso as well as tech stars Naval Ravikant, Kyle Vogt and Naval Ravikant.
Eight Sleep has now raised $150 million in Series C, and the startup confirmed that its value is close to $500 million.
Eight Sleeps CEO Matteo Franceschetti stated in an interview that funding would be used in several ways.
The first is to increase the amount of technology. Eights Pod technology today can measure your temperature, heartbeat, breathing, and heat or cool a mattress accordingly. Tomorrow, it could include additional products and ambient factors such as lighting and other diagnostics that relate to you, the sleeping person.
Eight Sleep is also looking to expand internationally. Eight Sleep, based in New York, plans to distribute its products throughout Europe and the UK by the year's end. It's not only Americans who could benefit from better sleep.
Franceschetti, who co-founded the company along with Andrea Ballarini and Massimo Andreasi Basi, told TechCrunch that he was a sports fan and began to think about how to improve sleep.
He said that I was interested in the idea of sleep being a form of recovery. He said that he was interested in the idea of sleep as recovery.
He stated that our vision is to save your life and compress your sleep. He said that six hours is better than eight. Eight Sleep claims its products can help people fall asleep 40% faster, have up to 20% deeper sleep, experience 30% fewer wake-ups at night, and have up to 30% less tosses and turn.
But can that make me forget about Covid, the economy, and societal collapse? Can it make me stop worrying about whether my children will be happy in their lives and if I remember to lock the doors downstairs? Maybe all those seem less serious when you're actually in your bed.
Eight is a popular choice for athletes, with over 100 of the most famous names using it today. It hopes that Eight will be able to gain mass appeal due to the huge boom in quantified self technology hardware, software that measures blood pressure, heart rate and how much exercise we do, as well as the large number of people who use it.
We live in an age where wearable tech tracks every move. As computing and communications technology have become more compact and portable and are infinitely more powerful, cloud technology and big data analytics have made it easier to gather data and make sense of it. This has only led to a greater range of possibilities to use that data to improve our lives.
That's why sleep is a huge opportunity for both startups and tech companies. Oura raised $100m earlier this year for its fitness and tracking rings. Zeit and others are exploring the use of wearable technology to address more severe sleep-related issues, such as strokes.
The larger tech companies aren't asleep at the wheel either. Google just updated its Nest Hub to track your sleep, and Apple acquired a sleep tech company called Beddit. This deal took place in 2017 and has been in the works for years. It could indicate that Apple is more interested in using the technology in its other health-related endeavors.
This all points to more developments in the $30 billion sleep tech market. Eight Sleep is on a roll. Revenues for 2021 are expected to triple compared to 2020. This is due to two main products: a mattress retailing for $2,500 and smart covers that retail for $1,500. Franceschetti stated that there are several thousand of them, but the company doesn't disclose the number of users.
The 2021 revenue is expected to triple over 2020. These funds will be used for the company's innovation and technology roadmap, and to grow the staff.
The market for sleep tech is still in its infancy. As we sleep up to a third our lives, the opportunities are endless. According to Antonio Gracias, Valor Equity, a statement said that consumers are more focused on their sleep health as they become more aware of the importance of sleep for overall health.
Gracias is the founder of Valor, and he will join the board with this round. He said that he was convinced by the Pod's first night, which made him feel like he had to be involved. This is something we have seen many times in our portfolio. Eight Sleeps products, technology and services are disrupting the sleep market. Its rapid innovation is surpassing all the rest and creating a new category of sleep-focused categories that delivers results.
