Can Philips Lean on Nightbalance?
In 2018, Philips acquired Nightbalance, a Dutch digital health company that had developed a device for correcting sleep posture to mitigate sleep apnea. The device is a band worn around the chest that vibrates to alert the wearer in…
Where Should Supermoon Invest Next?
Supermoon Capital is a new venture capital fund focusing solely on sleep technology. The fund is looking to invest in startups through pre-seed and Series A rounds and has raised $36M so far. Supermoon’s existing portfolio includes…
Spotify Will Help You Sleep
Music streaming service Spotify has long used user data to power personalized playlists and recommendations, which increases user loyalty to the app and opens the company up for partnership deals and royalties. If you’re anticipating…
Whoop Grows Funding, Continues to Develop Sleep Tech
Wearables company Whoop had a patent application publish in August 2021 for tracking and managing sleep cycles by combining biometric data with calendar data. The application shows that the company is continuing to advance its sleep…
Contactless Sleep Tracking is Growing — Who’s Patenting?
Tech giants Google and Amazon have both been in the news for their interest in contactless sleep tracing using radar or infrared monitoring. Google has the stronger patent portfolio to support such products, thanks to its Soli chip and…
Samsung Updates Watch — No Surprise to Patent Forecast
After partnering with Google to jointly develop a wearables operating system, Samsung has released its latest smartwatch, which uses the new OS and which has updates to sleep tracking and other health-related functionalities. One of the…
When Will Casper Pivot to Temperature Control?
Casper, the direct-to-consumer bedding company that had a rocky IPO in 2020, is reporting strong numbers for Q2 2021, including 45% increased revenue year over year and retail partnership revenue growth of 79%. Casper is continuing to…
Amazon Wants to Watch You Sleep
In March of 2021, Patent Forecast highlighted that patent data predicted that Google would be developing an IR-based sleep detector almost a year before Google confirmed it with an FCC filing. The new Nest Hub integrates products from the…
Is Bose Reinvesting in Sleep Tech?
Bose has focused its consumer sleep technology on earbuds and other audio devices, which fits in with the company’s other products but which have not yet been widely adopted as sleep trackers. Nevertheless, Bose’s patent activity indicates…
Kryo Goes Pro
Kryo, Inc has partnered with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds to provide its ChiliSleep™ temperature-controlling sleep products, which include a mattress pad that can be controlled by a mobile app. The Seattle Mariners have been…
Be Prepared for Smart Bed Manufacturers to Go to the Mattresses
Patent Forecast® is predicting that smart bed manufacturers will soon begin filing patent infringement lawsuits against each other. Major smart bed manufacturers in the Consumer Sleep Technology sector include Sleep Number (91 patent…
Patents Show Apple Still Pursuing Mattress Tech
In 2017, Apple acquired Beddit, which makes a sleep tracking strip that is attached to a mattress. While the Apple Watch has a Beddit app for the trackers, they are certainly not among Apple’s most popular products. However, patents and…
Sleep Number Leads With 80 Patents; Still Has Space To Innovate
When it comes to consumer sleep technologies, not all mattress companies are created equal. Sleep Number is the most innovative mattress company in the space, with 80 patent assets that are mostly directed to smart mattresses with sensing…
Is Philips Still Interested in Improving Sleep? Patents Say Yes.
Philips has consistently been one of the most active companies in Consumer Sleep patenting, second only to Fitbit in the past 10 years. However, Philips is not so well-known when it comes to products for tracking and improving sleep. Its…
Oura Leads Smart Ring Market. Fitbit Wants In.
Oura is the leading company when it comes to smart rings for consumer health. It raised $100M in early May of 2021 and has partnerships with numerous professional sports leagues. The ring has always been a product differentiator from…
Release Your Inner Snorlax with Nintendo’s New Patent
A lot of companies gamify health these days, using social media, movement rings, and weekly goals to promote healthier lifestyle choices. But when it comes to making sleep fun, who better to do that than Nintendo? The company received a…
Fitbit Enters the Snoring Market. Sorry Apple.
Developers noted in late May 2021 that Fitbit is planning on releasing a software update that will allow the wearables to track snoring. The features include noise detection and categorization to aid in the assessment of sleep. In rolling…
Kryo Expands Patent Portfolio
Half a year after merging with Ebb Therapeutics and raising $37M in funding, Kryo is further expanding its assets with five newly issued patents between April and May of 2021. The company is growing its portfolio by expanding into stress…
Samsung and Google Partner on Wearables, keep eye on Apple
Samsung and Google announced in May 2021 that they are partnering to develop one unified wearable software platform based on Google’s Wear OS and Samsung’s Tizen. The new OS will be used for Samsung’s future Galaxy smartwatches, as well as…
Purple Innovation is Boosting R&D. We Have Suggestions
Purple Innovation is the creator of the Purple mattress, as well as a number of other cushioned products. The company has a large number of patents for its mattress materials, which include gels and elastomers. This portfolio has…
Forget Smart Watches – Oura Has A Smart Ring AND $100M
Finnish wearable company Oura has announced in May 2021 a $100M Series C funding round led by the investment arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The support is unsurprising considering the companypartnered with the NBA, WNBA,…
Oura Raises $100M, Expands Patent Filings
Finnish wearable company Oura has announced in May 2021 a $100M Series C funding round led by the investment arm of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The support is unsurprising considering the company partnered with the NBA, WNBA, NASCAR, and the…
StimScience Raises Seed Funding, Sows Patents Early
California-based startup StimScience announced in April of 2021 that it had raised $6M in seed financing and is developing a consumer brain stimulation device to improve sleep. When it comes to sleep monitoring, the field is dominated by…
Casper Finally Relying on IP After Disappointing IPO
E-commerce mattress company Casper Sleep has had its fair share of ups and downs in the past two years. The startup raised over $300M in funding and was valued at $1.1B before announcing its IPO in January of 2020. Shortly after going…
Softbank Sees Opportunity in Eight Sleep and its Patents
Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group International is investing $100M in multiple Miami-based startups, and patents may be a factor in its decisions. The latest recipient of a portion of SoftBank's Opportunity Fund is Eight Sleep, which…
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