Every second European suffers from sleep problems. However, the currently available solutions do not address the root causes. Instead, they offer temporary relief from the worst symptoms instead of long-term improvements, and often come with undesirable side effects. Industry experts agree that CBT is currently the single most effective tool to combat sleep problems. Unfortunately, there is a lack of qualified specialist practitioners in this field.
Berlin-based healthtech start-up eaze has developed a tech-enabled coaching app based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), which provides data-driven, personalised sleep coachings. After early indications of product-market fit last year, the team has already onboarded over 1000 paying users and has now announced the successful closing of its €1.7 million pre-seed funding round.
The lead investor in this round is Redstone’s and EnjoyVenture’s social impact fund. They were joined by Barmenia Next Strategies, the healthtech investor behind the large German insurance group, as well as APX (Porsche and Axel Springer) and several well-known angel investors including Philipp Man, co-founder of luxury used watch marketplace Chronext and Anton Rummel, co-founder of the corporate expenses platform Moss.
The capital raised will be allocated to customer acquisition, brand recognition and further development of the platform, as well as developing efficient and suitable AI technologies.
Tim Seifferth, CEO of eaze, said: “Productivity, mental well-being and long-term health are severely impacted for those suffering from sleep problems. Reduced productivity at work, combined with sick days caused by sleep problems, cost our economy and public health system more than €60 billion, according to the American think tank Rand Corporation. Barmenia insurance group has also recognised this issue. The single most effective treatment for sleep problems is targeting the psychological and behavioural root causes, which also means this is a long-term solution. Our smart solution means that every user gets hyper-personalised access to his or her own qualified sleep psychologist via an intelligent chat app.”
Eaze has combined all relevant tools within its smart coaching technology, which brings together data-driven treatment recommendations and personalised, highly scalable online coachings from qualified sleep experts.
The founding team, consisting of CEO Tim Seifferth, COO Timur Nohut and CPO Noah Nawara, and accompanied by sleep expert Anne-Sophie Fluri, has reached important milestones less than 18 months after founding the business: they have onboarded more than 1,000 paying users and capitalise on a high retention rate and a strong willingness to pay.
The lead investor, Lucas Paul from Redstone, believes in the potential for eaze to address this ever-growing health problem, which has strong detrimental effects on its sufferers, in a scalable way. “The economic and health-related implications of sleep problems cannot be emphasised enough. The founding team at eaze has managed to develop a smart app that meets the demand for personalised coaching, while the intelligent tech stack in the background ensures impressive opportunities for scaling. With our Social Impact Fund, we invest in solutions to improve the well-being of the individual, thereby advancing our society at large. We are convinced that eaze has the potential to markedly improve the mental and physical health of its users in a sustainable and long-lasting way”, added Paul.