MOONA − The solution to regulate your sleep

 Because each person is unique, so are their temperature needs. Moona learns by your side, night after night, in order to adapt its recommendations and offer you the sleep you deserve. We recently interviewed Co-Founder and CEO of Moona, David Stoikovitch.

Before acting as CEO, he was CTO; he led MOONA’s technical team from developing early prototypes to shipping an innovative connected product used and loved by thousands of users worldwide. Before MOONA, David worked on large-scale software and data science projects as an independent consultant, turning terabytes of data into business value for clients such as EDF, the second-largest electricity producer in the world. He has always been passionate about technology.

He taught himself programming and hardware prototyping, and always believed a good use of technology can have a tremendous impact on people’s lives. He was personally affected by periods of insomnia that basically ruined his daily life, as he was unable to focus and function normally. He realized that sleep disorders are a huge problem, affecting millions of people, and it’s only getting worse. By talking to sleep doctors, they realized that temperature is a very important factor for sleep, as our body temperature needs to drop every night by about1ºC, and problems with temperature regulation can have a very negative impact on sleep quantity & quality. At the same time, his mother was going through menopause and was telling him how much she suffered from hot flashes and night sweats.

MOONA

MOONA is on a mission to improve sleep for millions of people, using breakthrough technology and AI. Their first product is the world's first smart cooling pillow pad. It regulates the temperature around the head &neck in order to prevent night sweats and hot flashes, which affect 41% of adults, in particular women in peri- and post-menopause. A small device (Pod)goes next to the bed and circulates water into a comfortable membrane (Pad)that goes inside the pillowcase. It packs 5 sensors to track sleep and measure improvements night after night and is connected to a mobile App (iOS &Android). The product is sold for $499 only on their website for now. They are launching on Kickstarter their new MOONA 2 product right now, on their website, marketplaces and select retail outlets, and a new software product offering designed for health providers.

Key trends in the sleep tech industry

In his view, the sleep tech industry will consolidate around solutions that have a proven impact on sleep improvement, as the market and consumer demand get more informed. Sleep trackers are great but passive solutions will not be enough, as proactive solutions to sleep issues will gain more adoption. The sleep medicine market will need more digitalization at every level, as the only way to meet the fast-growing demand from patients to get proper diagnosis and treatment for sleep disorders. This digitalization will also allow for more personalized pathways, depending on the issues specific to each population group.

We asked him three questions:

1. What are the challenges of your industry and how did you overcome them?

“One of the biggest challenges in the sleep technology industry is that it’s still at its infancy, so there’s a lot of new technology coming out, but not a lot of proof. Another challenge is that there is still a lot of stigma associated with bad sleep. Feeling sleepy during the day is seen as a sign of weakness or laziness. Conversely, sleep issues are underdiagnosed. By making a connected device and collecting millions of hours of sleep data, we’ve been able to find unique results on sleep improvement, most notably on women in peri- and post-menopause.

2. What are your biggest achievements to date?

“We successfully shipped a complex connected device to 3000+ customers worldwide. We got $1M+ total revenue to date, 2x YoY users / revenue growth, >60% product retention after 9 months.200+ press mentions worldwide: Washington Post, Bloomberg, TIME, Wired,Mashable, Engadget, Wall Street Journal… We won several awards: CES + IBM innovation award 2017, National Sleep Foundation innovator semi-finalist 2017,CES innovation award 2019, TIME Best Inventions 2021”.

3. How is a program such as Tech4Eva useful to you?

“Tech4Eva is a great program to meet fellow HealthTech / FemTech entrepreneurs, exchange about common challenges and struggles, and get quality mentorship on specific subjects in the life of as tart-up. The roadshows organized through the program are also great for networking. The team at Tech4Eva is very driven and hands-on to help all entrepreneurs achieve their goals.”

More Info:

➡️ Website: https://getmoona.com

➡️TWITTER: @GetMoona

➡️ Instagram: @getmoona

➡️ Facebook: @getmoona