On 20th August 2019, Shleep, the leader in B2B sleep coaching technology announced it has attracted €1.4M from VCs including Global Founders Capital, and Health Innovations to further develop their existing sleep platform. Their clients include The Huffington Post, Deloitte and Spotify – who have experienced strong improvements in sleep (up to 50% reduction in sleep debt) and performance improvement (up to 25% increase in productivity).
Shleep is the first science-based sleep coaching platform for companies, created by Dr. Els van der Helm (previously at McKinsey) and Jöran Albers (previously at Bain), and their team of sleep PhDs, health experts and software engineers. Dr. van der Helm has been named by Arianna Huffington as one of the 5 most influential people in the field of sleep and top 20 in well-being. Driven by the latest neuroscience research and the founders’ business expertise, Shleep supports employees, teams and leaders in changing their behavior and habits around sleep to avoid burnout and increase employee productivity, health and engagement.
“This funding round is a major milestone for Shleep,” said Albers, COO of Shleep. “It will allow us to scale our platform much faster to more employees.” Linze Dijkstra, Partner at Health Innovations: “Corporate wellbeing is a fast-growing segment, where we see sleep taking a prominent role.” Gerald Parloiu, Partner at Global Founders Capital added: “I was very impressed by the team and their track record, and I’m very excited to get onboard and support the Shleep team as it works on tackling this ever-increasing issue of sleep management."
Almost two thirds of adults are not getting enough sleep and need to catch up on the weekend1; as a result, they suffer from fatigue and diminished productivity, costing U.S companies alone $411 billion per year. Employees are working longer hours and experiencing more work-related stress, and only 13% of employees worldwide feel engaged (Gallup 2013). Professor Nick van Dam from IE Business School and the University of Pennsylvania, previously global chief learning officer at McKinsey: “More businesses are starting to realize that people have higher expectations from their employer than ever before. They care less about their salary but more about a positive environment, doing meaningful work and feeling supported by the company to prioritize their own health and wellbeing”. Research shows that “Getting enough sleep” is the number 1 issue employees want help with when it comes to their physical health and 40% of employees would ask sleep support from their employers – and for millenials, that figure is even higher, at 50%2.
“With so many people disengaged and unproductive at work, we believe that we need to fix one of the root causes,” said CEO Dr. van der Helm. “Research now shows sleep is a critical driver for your burnout risk, your ability to come up with new insights or ideas, to manage your own emotions and recognize emotions in others, and even your ability to trust others and behave ethically."
1Philips Global Sleep Survey 2019
2Consumer Health Mindset Survey: Aon Hewitt, the National Business Group on Health, and Kantar Futures (2017)
Source and Photos: Shleep
If you want to learn more about Shleep, read our interview with founder Els van der Helm.
