THEBIG IDEA
Knowof aBig Idea?
We’ll awardaprize to thebestBig Ideaof the year. If you’vegotone let us know:
W
hat’s thebig idea?
Beddit
– anew, ultra-thin sensor
youput under your
bedsheet thatmonitors
your sleep. In themorning
it downloads the info to amobile app,
which tells youhow you slept andhow to
improve your sleep.
What doesBedditmeasureandwhy
does itmatter?
Itmeasures how long you
sleep andhowoften youwakeup. Routine
and regular sleep is very important – it’s
vital to get enough. Your night-time
movement correlates to sleepquality:
do you sleepdeeply or have very shallow
sleep? You shouldhave five sleepcycles
every night. Beddit alsoevaluates your
heart rate, an important indicator of
stress, aswell as breathing and snoring.
I’veheardabout thiskindof thing
before,whatmakesBedditdifferent?
According toFinland-basedBeddit’sCEO
andco-founder Lasse Leppäkorpi, “The
main thing is theuser experience– it’s
so simple to install in your bed in five
seconds and it doesn’t disturb your sleep.
Other devices are intrusivebut youcan
just forget our sensor. The appprovides
youpersonalisedwellness analysis; you
Previouspage
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BedditCEOandco-
founderLasseLeppäkorpi
Top left and right
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Bedditconsistsof a
Bluetooth-enabledsensor,
poweradapteranda
mobileapp,whichyou
downloadseparately
can select the areas that interest you
most in your profile, such asweight loss –
all ourmetabolism is regulated in sleep.”
What gaveLeppäkorpi the idea?
“In the late 1990s, early 2000s I was a
triathlete– I was nearly professional – and
I learned the importanceof recovery and
sleep for an athlete,” he says. “At one
point I had towear aheart-ratemonitor
at night and I sawhowhard it is to sleep
with a sensor, it’s really annoying.”
Leppäkorpi alsohas abackground in
the science: he graduated in2004 from
Helsinki University of Technology in
electrical engineering (with a sideline
inmarketing and international business
strategy). His postgraduate subjectwas
biomedical engineering focusingon
ballistocardiography –measuring the
micro-movements of apersoncausedby
theheart beating.
SohowdidBeddit comeabout?
Leppäkorpi foundedBeddit Ltd inFinland
in2006withcolleagueMikkoWaris to
develop a sleep sensor for professional
medical use. Theywon theMcKinsey
VentureCupbusiness plancompetition in
2007 and found seedingmoney.Working
with aUShospital bedmanufacturer they
produced an integratedmonitor, but in
late2008 their partner pulledout due to
the global financial crisis. “It killed a very
bigdeal,” says Leppäkorpi. They decided
themedicalmarketwas too slow and
looked tomake something for homeuse
inspiredbyDrMarkkuPartinen, oneof the
world’s leading sleep researchers.
Whathappenednext?
In2010 they
beganworkingwithanothermattress
manufacturer, but after testing themarket
decided toworkona stand-aloneproduct
instead. Beddit Pro launchedearly in2012,
selling through sleepclinicsandgymchains
inmore than20countries, but needed
specialists toanalyse thedata. Thenew
Beddit sleepmonitor andmobileappaimed
at personal userswas introduced in June
2013 atNew York’s consumer electronic
week, where itwon the Technovation
award. InAugust, Beddit Ltd launched
a crowdfunding campaignon Indiegogo.
In less than threemonths, it raised
US$500,000 (NOK3.1m) –aFinnish record.
Has it caught on?
More than5,000
Bedditswerepre-ordered to 106
countries, priced at €149 (NOK1,230),
and shipping started in January this year.
“Since thenwe’ve started to grow really
rapidly –wenowhave a teamof 16 in
Espoo, Finland, and the SanFrancisco
Bay Area, and are recruitingone to two
newpeopleeverymonth.” They’ve also
been joinedby venturecapital company
Inventure, raising their total seed fund to
US$8m (NOK50.2m), and their revenue
is 100 timeswhat itwas last year. “We’re
moving forward very aggressively,”
Leppäkorpi says.
Sowhat’snext forBeddit?
They’ve
securedmajordistributionacross theUSA,
EuropeandAsia thatwill be inplace for
theholiday season, and they alsoplan to
set upaweb service that passes all the
sleepdata to theCloud. “Thereareendless
possibilities toanalysedataon theweb,
especially for special user groups, suchas
topathletes,whocan findout how toget
thebest out of their sleep.”
beddit.com
“Bedditprovidespersonalised
wellness analysis and is so
simple to install in yourbed”
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