Sleep technology firm Eight Sleep has successfully secured $50 million in a strategic funding round led by Tether Investments, elevating its valuation to $1.5 billion. This latest financing follows a significant $100 million round last August, which attracted investment from notable backers including HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator.
Eight Sleep is known for its innovative smart mattress accessories that monitor sleep patterns and adjust mattress temperatures accordingly. While the company did not disclose its valuation from the previous funding round, it was reported to be valued at $500 million post-money in 2021 after raising $86 million in a Series C funding round. To date, the startup has garnered over $310 million in total funding, as indicated by Crunchbase.
The company has stated that it achieved positive cash flow earlier this year and intends to utilise the newly acquired funds for product development, global expansion, and clinical validation. Currently, Eight Sleep distributes its products to over 34 countries worldwide.
Looking ahead, Eight Sleep aims to transcend the consumer market by seeking FDA approval for new products aimed at detecting and alleviating sleep apnea. Co-founder and CEO Matteo Franceschetti articulated the company’s ambitious vision, emphasising their goal to establish a leading health technology company that creates an advanced system for understanding and enhancing sleep.
Eight Sleep also plans to develop a sleep-focused AI agent designed to proactively manage temperature, elevation, and firmness of its products to minimise sleep disruption. This AI system simulates various scenarios before users go to bed, ensuring conditions are optimised for sleep.
The company has leveraged proprietary data to train its AI models, with preliminary trials indicating that users have adapted their habits, including exercise schedules and caffeine consumption, based on insights from the app.
In addition to ongoing innovation, Eight Sleep has recently introduced products such as a hydro blanket for temperature regulation and a new pillow cover designed for head and neck temperature control.
However, the firm faced criticism last October during an AWS outage that rendered users’ mattress accessories inoperable, resulting in overheating issues. This led to the implementation of an “outage mode” feature to prevent future disruptions.
Eight Sleep competes with other brands like BedJet and Chilipad in the temperature control sector, while also facing rivalry from sleep-tracking devices such as Oura and Whoop.
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