A dream enterprise? KKR is investing $ 37 million within the merger of Charlotte, Pittsburgh sleep tech firm

CHARLOTTE – With a $ 37 million investment from one of the world’s leading investment firms, Kryo, the fast-growing parent company of Charlotte-based sleep technology company ChiliSleep, is merging with a Pittsburgh company. It also focuses on sleep-related technology.

ChiliSleep manufactures the chiliPAD and OOLER sleep systems. Kryo was ranked 615 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list for Fastest Growing Small Businesses, and the OOLER was named Product of the Year in 2019 by Tech News World.

Ebb Therapeutics, maker of CoolDrift Luxe and CoolDrift Versa.

Both companies make products that are designed to create an appropriately temperate sleeping environment so that individuals can achieve better sleep rhythms.

ChiliSleep products

As part of the merger, the global investment firm KKR, which is the largest investor in Ebb Therapeutics to date, is leading an additional investment round of USD 37 million.

The global sleep market is estimated at $ 432 billion.

“This combination confirms that the world is ready to take a new look at sleep and incorporate clinically-researched solutions into everyday life,” said Tara Youngblood, CEO and co-founder of ChiliSleep. “This investment and our merger with Ebb will help accelerate the growth of new spaces for consumers to meet where they are, with bedroom solutions and on-the-go resources to coach them along the way.”

Regular, sustained adequate and adequate sleep has been found to improve cognitive functioning and academic performance, and academic research shows that regular, recurring sleep patterns also have long-term health benefits, or at least have adverse effects, from inadequate sleep on the individual Health and public safety.

In 2016, Kryo completed a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo led by co-founders Todd and Tara Youngblood, which raised $ 268,324. This campaign took place after the company was founded in 2007, and followed years of research that led the Youngbloods to discover that the key to sleep – in their words a “sleep switch” – are VLPO neurons in the human brain that are powered by the Ambient temperature. The company holds 10 pending or pending patents and announced a partnership with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace in January 2020 in which the company has committed to deliver $ 1 million in products ahead of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic Donate to first responders and healthcare providers.

“Phenomenal sleep is activated by temperature,” says the ChiliSleep website. “Phenomenal sleep should be easy.”

The company’s products include the ChiliPAD sleep system, a remote temperature control pillow, the OOLER sleep system, which is app-enabled, and the weighted ChiliBLANKET, priced between $ 299 and $ 699. The technology enables personalized hot or cold temperatures, and the Youngbloods believe it can help fight the Rand Institute’s estimated sleep deprivation epidemic that costs the US $ 411 billion in lost productivity each year.

“We are honored to merge with ChiliSleep, a company whose goals really match,” said Eduard Röösli, CEO of Ebb Therapeutics. “With their wide-ranging skills and respect for science, I am confident that they can maximize our breakthrough, proven technology and help even more people live happier, healthier lives.”

Ebb Therapeutics developed devices based on brain imaging studies that were used to track patterns in subjects with insomnia, developed by Dr. Eric Nofzinger during his tenure as director of the Sleep Neuroimaging Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“This truth is fundamental to Ebb. We are not born from product development, but from a purity of clinical purpose – safe sleep through science, ”says the Ebb Therapeutics website. The FDA cleared Ebb Insomnia Therapy, CoolDrift, and its users report an 80% improvement in sleep quality. According to the company, the technology is supported by 10 studies with 340 participants, covering 6,500 nights of sleep, the results of which are published in the journal SLEEP.

Ebb Therapeutics’ products range from $ 249 to $ 399. The company also sells accessories and personalized one-on-one sleep coaching.

Full details of the agreement have not yet been made public.

Kryo was ranked 615 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list for Fastest Growing Small Businesses, and the OOLER was named Product of the Year in 2019 by Tech News World.