Belgium-based Sunrise plans to launch its chin patch home sleep test in the US after receiving US Food and Drug Administration clearance for its second-generation device late last year and closing a €17 million ($18.2 million) funding round.
Laurent Martinot, CEO and co-founder of the company, says the new device, which uses a mandibular jaw movements signal alongside the traditional signals of airflow and oximetry, brings a new level of clinical information and ease of use to home sleep testing.
New features that will be available on this sleep test, which uses artificial intelligence to aid in the diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea and sleep-related breathing disorders, include the ability for patients to complete multi-night testing.
“Home sleep tests have come a long way in recent years and are now well established in diagnosing sleep disorders in appropriate patient,” says Atul Malhotra, MD, board-certified pulmonologist, intensivist, and research chief of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine at UC San Diego Health, in a press release. “Despite this success, there remain shortcomings, and the Sunrise device appears to close some of these gaps in its ability to convey relevant information about hypoxic burden and total sleep time spent with increased respiratory effort, a key component of obstructive sleep apnea that has been linked to cardiovascular and mortality outcomes.”
As for the new financing round, it was led by Kurma Partners and includes new investors such as Sambrinvest, IMBC, InvestBW, Sofinex, and European Innovation Council. According to a press release by Sunrise, the company hopes to accelerate its growth with two major moves in the coming months: commercializing its technology in the US and hiring new talent. Sunrise aims to multiply the size of its teams by 10 in the next five years.
“This latest fundraising operation, together with our accreditation, confirms our ambition to improve access to treatment for the 1 billion people worldwide who suffer from sleep apnea. Studies show that the vast majority of these people are unaware of this disease. Sleep apnea is probably one of the most common and under-diagnosed chronic diseases in the world,” says Martinot in a release.
Sunrise’s technology also has been cleared under the Medical Device Regulation in Europe.
“Sunrise’s solutions will change the lives of millions of people around the world who suffer from sleep disorders today. Their world-class clinical performance technology is the first to provide patients with a simple, accessible, and uniquely accurate sleep analysis solution,” says Philippe Peltier, partner at Kurma Partners, in a press release.
The Sunrise team currently consists of 30 people and has around 20 vacancies in Belgium, France, and the US.
