When one-third of adults worldwide are struggling with insomnia, an ordinary bed is quietly evolving into a private physician that knows your body best. Eight Sleep, a New York startup founded in 2014, is redefining the sleep experience with AI technology, turning every night into a treasure trove of health data.
On Tuesday, Eight Sleep announced a $100 million new funding round, with an impressive list of investors: HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and other renowned institutions have all joined, as well as top athletes such as Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc and McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown. This detail reveals a key message: even Formula 1 drivers, who demand the utmost in physical condition, believe that quality sleep is the ultimate secret weapon for competitive performance.
According to PitchBook, Eight Sleep's total funding has reached approximately $260 million. The company completed an $86 million Series C round in 2021, with a post-money valuation of $500 million at that time. Although Eight Sleep says the latest valuation has doubled, the exact figure remains undisclosed. Alexandra Zataryan, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Eight Sleep, told TechCrunch: If we successfully execute our AI roadmap, achieve international expansion, and develop interventions for specific diseases, becoming a unicorn will be a natural outcome.
The core product of Eight Sleep, the Pod smart mattress, functions like an invisible sleep laboratory. It not only precisely tracks sleep stages, heart rate, breathing patterns, and physical activity, but it can also automatically adjust temperature, height, and firmness based on this data. When the system detects snoring, it automatically elevates the head of the bed to alleviate the issue. This proactive sleep intervention makes traditional passive monitoring seem outdated.
Numbers speak volumes: Pod product sales have exceeded $500 million, with tenfold revenue growth since its launch in 2019, and over 1 billion hours of sleep data collected. Behind these massive data sets lies Eight Sleep's unprecedented deep understanding of human sleep patterns.
With fewer than 100 full-time employees, Eight Sleep is moving beyond traditional hardware thinking. Their latest offering, Sleep Agent, is an AI system driven by a large language model that creates thousands of digital twins for each user and predicts outcomes, aiming to optimize nighttime recovery. Zataryan explained that this approach transforms sleep technology from passive tracking to active, personalized interventions.
In the competitive sleep tech market, Eight Sleep faces challenges from wearable devices like Oura, Fitbit, Apple, medical companies like ResMed, and smart mattress manufacturers such as Sleep Number and ChiliSleep. However, Eight Sleep's core differentiating advantage, the Autopilot feature, begins building a personal blueprint from the first night and continuously adapts to seasonal changes, travel, stress, training, illness, and even a bad night's sleep. More importantly, it works independently on each side of the bed, truly achieving personalized sleep management.
The new funding will help Eight Sleep accelerate its entry into the healthcare sector. Through the Health Check feature, the system can monitor cardiovascular and respiratory patterns with up to 99% accuracy without the need for wearable devices. Zataryan emphasized: We are not trying to replace doctors, but to provide users with high-precision health monitoring at night, allowing people to take action when trends change. Over time, this data will become a powerful supplement to medical care.
Eight Sleep's innovation doesn't stop there. The recently launched hot flash mode uses AI-driven cooling technology to alleviate menopause symptoms, and the company is also developing non-contact solutions for sleep apnea. They are currently seeking FDA approval to use real-time biometric monitoring from the Pod to provide personalized interventions.
In terms of international expansion, Eight Sleep has shipped to more than 30 countries, including Canada, the UK, EU countries, Australia, Mexico, and the UAE. They are now planning to enter the Chinese market. Zataryan told TechCrunch that China, as one of the world's largest consumer markets, is seeing the rise of a health-conscious middle-class population that prioritizes sleep and overall wellness.
Regarding the handling of sensitive health data, Zataryan said the company strictly complies with local regulations, including data storage requirements. She emphasized: Privacy is fundamental. All data is encrypted, not sold, and completely private. We follow GDPR and CCPA regulations. Unlike many devices, we do not use microphones. Our biometric sensors are embedded in the mattress surface, requiring no wearable devices, being non-invasive, and providing passive, high-accuracy insights.
Eight Sleep is transforming a simple place to sleep into the forefront of health management. In an era where everyone craves better sleep, a bed that thinks may just be the answer.
