The venture community is waking up to the possibilities of bringing artificial intelligence to a broader range of real-world, consumer-driven challenges, and the latest development on that front comes today: Eight Sleep has raised $86 million in a Series C round of funding for its “smart” mattresses and mattress covers (for regular mattresses) that use machine learning and other artificial intelligence-based algorithms to improve your sleep by changing temperature and monitoring other physical parameters to provide an overall picture of your health.
Valor Equity Partners, which has backed Tesla, SpaceX, GoPuff, and a slew of other big tech companies, is leading this latest round of funding, with SoftBank, Khosla Ventures, Founders Fund, and General Catalyst also on board, as well as a slew of high-profile users of the product, including athletes Alex Rodriguez, Kris Bryant, and J.D. Martinez; celebrities Kevin Hart; and tec Eight Sleep has now collected $150 million in total funding, and the company has revealed to me that its valuation is close to $500 million.
Eight Sleep’s CEO, Matteo Franceschetti, stated in an interview that the funds will be used in a variety of ways.
First and foremost, the strategy is to intensify the development of new technology. Eight’s Pod technology can now monitor your temperature, heartbeat, and breathing and adjust the temperature of your bed accordingly. More physical products, extra environmental elements like illumination, and other diagnostics relating to you, the sleeper, could be included tomorrow. Second, Eight Sleep intends to grow globally, with ambitions to offer its products in Europe and the United Kingdom by the end of this year. After all, it’s not just Americans who could benefit from a better night’s sleep.
Franceschetti, who co-founded the company with Massimo Andreas Bassi, Andrea Ballarini, and Alexandra Zatarain, told TechCrunch that as a passionate and energetic sports enthusiast, he came to think about sleep and the need to improve it.
He explained, “I was into the idea of sleep as recuperation.” “That is how the concept of sleep fitness was born.” “Sleep is not merely a waste of time,” he explained. As a result, having better-quality sleep is important for everyone, not just athletes.
He stated, “Our objective is to compress your sleep and preserve your life.” “A nice six hours is better than eight hours that aren’t,” he continued. The company’s initial name, Eight, alludes to the famed eight-hour workday. People who use Eight Sleep products, according to the company, fall asleep 40 percent faster, enjoy up to 20% more deep sleep, have 30% fewer mid-night wake-ups, and have 30% fewer tosses and turns.
(However, can it persuade me to stop worrying about COVID, the economy, and societal collapse, if my children will be happy in life, and whether we remembered to lock the basement door? Or maybe it’s just that when you’re in bed, everything seems less serious…)
