Sleepagotchi, the US firm that brings gamification to sleeping habits has raised US$3.5M in a seed funding round. The Sleepagotchi app rewards users for meeting consistent sleep goals with digital collectibles. Each morning when they wake up, users claim a digital collectible from which they can construct virtual collectible rooms.
Sleepagotchi found popularity in Asia during the closed Alpha testing in mid-2022, which built an active and passionate user base in Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea. In November 2022, Sleepagotchi launched its closed Beta, now available on the iOS app store, with Android development ongoing.
In Sleepagotchi, users enter their target bedtime and wake-up time that they hope to achieve consistently. Users then receive different levels of rewards depending on how close their actual bedtime and wake-up times were to their target and how consistent they were.
Investors in the seed funding round include 6th Man Ventures, Collab+Currency, Shima Capital, 1kx, DeFi Alliance, Sfermion, Emoote, and LCA Game Guild. Notable angels include Cem Kansu (VP Product at Duolingo), Santiago R Santos, and Justin Melillo (Founder of Mona).
Serge Kassardjian, General Partner at 6th Man Ventures and CEO of Staytuned, will join the Board of Sleepagotchi as a Director, and Derek Schloss, Managing Partner at Collab+Currency will join as an Observer.
The project is led by co-founders Anton Kraminkin and Alex Karatkou. Anton is a former management consultant who previously worked in product at Duolingo with a focus on gamification features. Alex is a computer vision engineer focused on iOS applications who previously worked on large-scale B2C applications for European sports clubs.
“What initially started as a side project to gamify sleep quickly found an active community in Japan and around the world. Users reported improved sleep discipline and hygiene thanks to the gamification mechanics of Sleepagotchi, which convinced us to build out the product further and distribute it to a wider audience,” says Anton Kraminkin, co-founder of Sleepagotchi.
“Sleepagotchi sits at the intersection of gamification, incentivized health behaviour, and community building. Through a unique framework of utilizing collectibles to encourage good sleep behaviour, the company will change how people interact with their health and fitness goals and collaborate and compete in gamification for good,” says Serge Kassardjian, General Partner at 6th Man Ventures.
“Sleepagotchi uniquely innovates on the design space of previous health gamification apps,” says Derek Schloss, Managing Partner at Collab+Currency. “Armed with a high-fidelity mobile app, a novel digital collectible experience, and a fast-growing global community, Sleepagotchi has the potential to improve the sleep schedule for tens of millions around the world.”
This round of funding will provide Sleepagotchi with the resources for effective product development and initial scaling. The seed round was completed in September 2022, but is announced now as Sleepagotchi enters a more public testing phase on the app stores. The goal remains clear: To help users from across the world improve their sleeping habits with gamification features.
