CHARLOTTE – Backed by a $37 million investment from one of the world’s top investment firms, Kryo, the fast-growing Charlotte-based parent company of the sleep technology company ChiliSleep, is merging with a Pittsburgh company. It too focuses on sleep-related tech.

ChiliSleep manufactures the chiliPAD and OOLER sleep system. Kryo ranked No. 615 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list for fastest-growing small companies and the OOLER was voted the “product of the year” by Tech News World in 2019.

 Ebb Therapeutics, the manufacturer of the CoolDrift Luxe and CoolDrift Versa.

Both companies manufacture products designed to cultivate an appropriately temperate sleep environment so individuals can achieve better sleep rhythms.

ChiliSleep products

As a part of the merger, the global investment firm KKR, which is to-date the largest investor in Ebb Therapeutics, is leading an additional $37 million investment round.

The worldwide sleep market is estimated to be $432 billion.

“This combination is validation that the world is ready to take a fresh look at sleep and incorporate clinically researched solutions into everyday life,” said Tara Youngblood, CEO and Co-Founder of ChiliSleep.  “This investment and our merger with Ebb will help to accelerate growth into new spaces for consumers, meeting them where they are in the journey, with solutions for the bedroom, and on-the-go resources to help coach them along the way.”

Regular, ongoing adequate and sufficient sleep has been found to improve cognitive function and academic performance, and the academic research demonstrates that there are also long-term health benefits to regular, recurring sleep patterns, or at least that there are detrimental effects of inadequate sleep with regard to individual health and public safety.

In 2016, Kryo closed a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo, led by co-founders Todd and Tara Youngblood, raising $268,324.  That campaign came after the company was founded in 2007, and followed years of research that led the Youngbloods to determine that the key to sleep–a “sleep switch” in their words–are VLPO neurons in the human brain which are triggered by ambient temperature.  The company holds 10 patents registered or pending, and in January 2020 announced a partnership with NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace, where the company committed to donating $1 million worth of products to first responders and healthcare providers, prior to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Phenomenal sleep is activated by temperature,” reads the ChiliSleep website.  “Phenomenal sleep should be easy.”

The company’s products include the ChiliPAD sleep system, a remote-controlled temperature regulation pad, the OOLER sleep system that is app-enabled, and the weighted ChiliBLANKET, which range from $299 to $699 in price.   The technology allows for personalized hot or cold temperatures, and the Youngbloods believe that it can help address the sleep deprivation epidemic that the Rand Institute estimates costs the United States $411 billion in productivity losses each year.

“We are honored to be merging with ChiliSleep, a company whose goals truly match up,” said Eduard Röösli, CEO of Ebb Therapeutics. “With their far-reaching capabilities and respect for science, I am confident that they will be able to maximize our groundbreaking, proven technology and help even more people live happier, healthier lives.”

Ebb Therapeutics developed devices based on brain-imaging studies that tracked patterns in test subjects experiencing sleeplessness led by Dr. Eric Nofzinger during his tenure as the director of the Sleep Neuroimaging Research Program at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

“This truth is foundational for Ebb; we’re not born of product development, but a purity of clinical purpose–safer sleep through science,” reads the Ebb Therapeutics website.  The FDA cleared the Ebb Insomnia Therapy, CoolDrift, and its users report an 80% enhancement in the quality of their sleep.  According to the company, the technology is backed by 10 studies involving 340 participants that encompass 6,500 nights of sleep whose results are published in the peer-reviewed journal SLEEP.

Ebb Therapeutics’ products range from $249 to $399, and the company also sells accessories and personalized one-on-one sleep coaching.

Full details of the agreement have not yet been released.

Kryo ranked No. 615 on the 2020 Inc. 5000 list for fastest-growing small companies and the OOLER was voted the “product of the year” by Tech News World in 2019.