Medtech startup SleepCogni raises £300,000 for insomnia care

Sheffield-based insomnia medtech firm SleepCogni has raised £300,000, bringing its total funding to £3.9m.

The funding was raised in an Enterprise Investment Scheme pre-approved bridging round, supported by existing investors and grants.

Richard Mills, chief executive at SleepCogni, said: “I am happy to strengthen our commercial team and announce this additional funding.

“The continued support from our investors is a testament to their confidence in our mission and the team’s ability to deliver.

“With a well-rounded executive team featuring experience from global leaders in pharmaceuticals like Teva, healthcare insurance giants such as Aetna, and consumer retail leaders like Apple, we are well-positioned to drive the business forward.”

He also welcomed Mark Milton-Edwards to the team and celebrated Joseph Hawkins’ appointment as chief operating officer.

“Together, they reinforce our mission to revolutionise sleep health and position SleepCogni as a global leader in insomnia care,” Mills added.

The funding comes ahead of a planned larger funding round in 2025, to enable the company to achieve milestones including CE and FCC approvals and commercialising into the global sleep tech market.

Milton-Edwards was formerly head of product and health solutions, digital health at Teva Pharmaceuticals. Prior to Teva, he spent 16 years at AstraZeneca, and his achievements include creation of Digihaler, the first FDA and MHRA approved fully integrated digital inhaler.

Milton-Edwards said: “I’m excited to join SleepCogni at such a pivotal stage in its journey.

“The team, led by Richard, has already achieved remarkable success, with their therapy demonstrating significant improvements vs. sham control in a randomised clinical trial setting.

“The opportunity in sleep is immense, and I believe SleepCogni’s technology has the potential to address a critical global need, changing millions of lives through better sleep.

“I look forward to contributing my experience in digital health innovation to help unlock the company’s potential for worldwide impact.”

Hawkins joined SleepCogni after collaborating on his dissertation at the University of Sheffield, where he used machine learning to predict sleep onset, which is now used to personalise SleepCogni’s therapy.

SleepCogni was one of 10 startups to participate in the KidsUP children and young people’s healthtech accelerator programme, run by Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust, which launched in October 2024.

In May 2024 the firm announced that it had received more than £340,000 from Innovate UK to fund a project with Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust to tackle insomnia in children.

The project was to test the SleepCogni device in a user experience trial with paediatric patients with the aim of optimising the device to meet the specific needs of children, as well as introducing AI algorithms to enhance the therapy’s personalisation and engagement.

Meanwhile, Will Goddard, UK managing director at Big Health, which created the insomnia app Sleepio, says that the technology is still awaiting NHS England funding after being recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for adoption in the NHS in May 2022.