Sleep medicine and remote monitoring company Onera Health has received funding of €2.5 million from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator (SME Instrument) to further develop innovations in medical-grade remote care for sleep and chronic patients, with home-based solutions that will be vital in a post-COVID-19 world. Less than 2% of applicants were selected.
Onera’s driving mission is to modernize sleep medicine by making sleep services accessible to all, anytime, anywhere, and regardless of socioeconomics or geographic location. It is developing proprietary clinical-grade monitoring patches that are as easy to apply as an adhesive bandage. The concept is that patients can use the monitoring system in their own bed and receive comprehensive sleep care via remote consultations with sleep doctors from the comfort and safety of their home.
In recent years, basic sleep screening devices such as smart watches and mattress sensors have captured the public’s fascination, but these gadgets provide limited and in some cases inaccurate information about sleep quality. Onera’s clinical-grade wireless sensors and machine learning algorithms seek to redefine the gold standard’ of remote sleep monitoring. And because the system monitors brain, lung, and heart functions, the potential for use in other medical fields goes beyond sleep medicine, the company states.
Ruben de Francisco, Onera’s chief technology officer and managing director in the Netherlands, says in a release, “We’re honored that EIC Accelerator has seen the value of our revolutionary technology and innovative approach to remote care. We’ve overcome a lot of challenges to bring hospital-grade monitoring into the home for sleep and chronic disease management.”
Onera thanks Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland (Netherlands Enterprise Agency) for its ongoing support, from Onera’s earliest days, to providing advice and helping prepare for the presentation that won them the EIC grant.
Onera has previously raised over €10 million, including Series A funding led by Jazz Pharmaceuticals and imec.xpand, as well as other investors including imec, BOM Brabant Ventures and 15th Rock Ventures.
