Tired and tested: Onera raises $32M to help clinicians conduct sleep studies in patients' homes
Onera Health, a startup providing sleep diagnostic and monitoring technology to help clinicians conduct studies, has raised €30 million ($32 million) in a Series C round of funding.
Poor sleep is thought to impact the U.S. economy alone to the tune of $400 billion, due to factors such as absenteeism and sleep-related presenteeism.
While there are countless sleep-tracking aids in the market already, Onera sells itself as more of a clinical-grade solution, having secured regulatory clearance from the likes of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the U.S. The company provides end-to-end "polysomnography-as-a-service," allowing healthcare professionals to conduct a sleep study directly in the patient's home -- or in a lab, if required.
It works like this: The clinician orders a polysomnography (PSG) study via Onera, which ships the necessary sensors directly to the patient who then connects the sensors as instructed -- this includes four wireless contraptions that are attached to the forehead, upper chest, abdominal area and lower leg.
The patient returns all the hardware back to Onera, which processes the data in its own cloud and produces a report for the clinician to assess.
Founded out of the Netherlands in 2017, Onera has now raised €55 million since its inception, with its latest Series C round co-led by EQT Life Sciences and Gimv, with participation from Innovation Industries, Invest-NL, Imec.xpand, BOM and 15th Rock.
With a fresh €30 million in the bank, the company said that it plans to expedite regulatory clearance for a second-generation PSG system both in the U.S. and in Europe, where it currently serves the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) and DACH (Germany, Austria Switzerland) regions.
"We will continue aggressively investing in R&D, customer success, and geographic expansion to help the medical field provide the much-needed answers for millions of people affected by sleep disorders," Onera founder and CEO Ruben de Francisco said in a statement.