Eight Sleep raises $50M at $1.5B valuation to build predictive AI agent for sleep optimization

Eight Sleep raises $50M at $1.5B valuation | TechCrunch

Sleep tech company Eight Sleep today said that it has raised $50 million in a strategic round led by Tether Investments at a valuation of $1.5 billion. This new round comes after the startup closed a $100 million round last August from investors such as HSG, Valor Equity Partners, Founders Fund, and Y Combinator. The startup, which sells smart mattress accessories that can track your sleep patterns and adjust temperatures as you sleep, didn't disclose its valuation for the previous round, but it was valued at $500 million post-money in 2021 when it raised an $86 million Series C led by Valor Equity Partners. The company has raised over $310 million to date, according to Crunchbase. Eight Sleep said it was free-cash-flow positive in 2025, and plans to use the new funding for new products, global expansions, and clinical validation. The company currently ships its products to over 34 countries. The company said it wants to expand beyond selling consumer products, and has sought approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for products that can detect and mitigate sleep apnea. "What we're building doesn't exist yet -- a system that understands your body better each night and acts on that knowledge. Our goal is to build the defining health technology company of this generation," Matteo Franceschetti, co-founder and CEO of Eight Sleep, said in a statement. The company said that it wants to work on a sleep-focused AI agent that controls the temperature, elevation and firmness of its products proactively and prevents sleep disruption. It said that the agent simulates many scenarios before users get into bed and prepares its products for optimal sleep. Eight Sleep said that its models are trained on proprietary data, and early pilots of its AI-driven guidance have resulted in people changing their habits, such as exercise timing, caffeine intake or sleep schedules, based on the analysis provided by the app. Last year, the company launched a hydro blanket that controls temperature, and a new pillow cover that can provide temperature control for the head and neck. Eight Sleep was caught in a controversy last October when users' mattress accessories stopped working because of an AWS outage as they couldn't connect to its servers. The beds overheated, and the company had to add an "outage mode" to its products for such situations. Eight Sleep competes with the likes of BedJet and Chillpad on the mattress and temperature control front, and with Oura and Whoop in the sleep tracking market.

Eight Sleep Secures $50M in Funding to Build AI Sleep Agents

Tether led a $50 million investment round in Eight Sleep, partnering to integrate AI health tech through its QVAC architecture. Stablecoin firm Tether has led a $50 million strategic investment round in sleep technology startup Eight Sleep, to help the company integrate artificial intelligence agents into its sleep tech products. The latest funding round was announced on Tuesday, with Eight Sleep raising $50 million at a $1.5 billion valuation. It follows a $100 million raise last August. The firm specializes in sleep health products, primarily across bedding and supplements. In an announcement on Tuesday, Tether expressed its strong conviction in health technology for supporting "longevity, performance, and disease prevention," and will collaborate with Eight Sleep to bring artificial intelligence-based health technology products to the market. Tether has been using its stockpile of capital to invest in a wide range of areas outside of crypto. Its investments span the gold sector, media, biotechnology and AI. The firm also made multiple attempts to buy professional football clubs. "Technologies that can turn continuous health data into clear, practical insights will shape the future of consumer health and wellness," Tether said. "The investment is designed to empower Eight Sleep and establish a long-term collaboration to build advanced AI-driven health technology using, among others, Tether's QVAC architecture and leveraging QVAC's edge intelligence to enhance Eight Sleep products," it added. Tether's QVAC is a privacy-focused health tech service launched in December that enables users to integrate their bio-health data from multiple services or products like smart rings, into a singular platform, which is supported by a local on-device AI to help users with data management and health insights. Eight Sleep has stated that it plans to build a sleep-focused AI agent, which will be used to support its Pod, a sleep tech product that automatically adjusts bed temperature, elevation, and sound based on factors like heart rate, breathing, snoring, time asleep, and sleep stages. Related: Stablecoin giving grows as 'crypto philanthropy' matures: Report The Pod already has AI integrations to track sleep health data; however, Eight Sleep has said the funding will help evolve the company's current AI tools and capabilities. "We've built the most seamless AI-powered health sensing system in the world, and this partnership with Tether gives us the infrastructure to take that intelligence beyond the Pod, into every aspect of personal health," noted Franceschetti as part of Tether's announcement. On X, Franceschetti gave more detail and said Eight Sleep is now building a predictive agent trained on over 1 billion hours of sleep data; meanwhile, it is also "advancing FDA filings for sleep apnea detection." "Passive. Every night. No wires, no clinic visits," he said.