Medical Device Network

Onera raises $32.7m to develop remote sleep diagnostics

The Netherland-based company plans to use the Series C funds to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of its products.

Netherland-based Onera Health has raised €30m ($32.7m) in Series C financing to accelerate the manufacturing and deployment of its products.

Onera also plans to use the funds to accelerate the clearance of second generation at home sleep disorder diagnostics, polysomnography (PSG) systems in Europe and the US. The company launched the first generation of the PSG system in Europe in September 2022.

The PSG system utilises a patch-based sensor system with cloud technology to allow healthcare professionals to perform PSG in both at-home and lab settings. PSG records a variety of vitals, including brain waves, oxygen levels, heart rate and breathing along with eye and leg movements during sleep. It is the gold standard for sleep-related breathing disorders such as obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and central sleep apnoea.

The Series C financiers included EQT Life Sciences, investing from its EQT Health Economics 3 fund, Gimv, Innovation Industries, Invest-NL, imec.xpand, BOM, and 15th Rock. As part of this transaction, Drew Burdon from EQT Life Sciences and Michaël Vlemmix from Gimv Life Sciences will join Onera’s board of directors.

Onera plans to showcase the PSG system at the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s event ‘Sleep Medicine Trends 2024’ taking place on 23-24 February in La Jolla, California, as per a 16 January press release.

Multiple companies are investing in the development of sleep diagnostic and remote monitoring devices. A 2022 report by GlobalData forecasts that the remote patient monitoring device market will reach $760m by 2030. The market will exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 3.3% from 2020 to 2030.

In October 2023, Sleepiz received Class II 510(k) clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its bedside device that monitors patients’ vital signs during sleep. Sleepiz One+ device uses radar technology for contactless monitoring of breathing patterns, respiration rate and heart rate during sleep.

In addition to diagnostics, companies are also investing in sleep therapeutics. In October 2023, Belfast-based Neurovalens’s Modius Sleep device received 510(k) clearance from the US FDA for the treatment of chronic insomnia. The non-invasive device delivers electrical stimulation to the vestibular nerve of the brain to regulate sleep patterns and the circadian rhythm.