Supermoon Capital, formerly known as SleepScore Ventures, has announced the launch of its first $36M venture fund. Goal is to invest in early-stage startups across all geographies working on science-backed innovations aimed to improve sleep. With the world’s first fund investing in sleep, Supermoon Capital aims to address the rapidly emerging category of the “Night Market”, the firm’s name for the budding $488B sleep economy.
The global epidemic of insufficient sleep has profound negative effects on both short and long-term health and wellness. 75% of Americans suffer from recurring sleep issues, and insufficient sleep plagues nearly every age group around the world. Nearly a billion people worldwide suffer from sleep apnea, and it is estimated that the sleep disorder remains undiagnosed for 80 percent of Americans.
“Sleep is truly the most important but least understood aspect of everyone’s daily life that affects our health, happiness, and productivity,” said Pat Connolly, co-founder and managing partner of Supermoon Capital. “We founded Supermoon Capital with the mission to serve as the premier source of capital and expertise for the Night Market. We believe that by reuniting our chronically fatigued world with healthy sleep, we can extend and enhance the lives of millions around the globe.”
Prior to launching Supermoon Capital, Connolly spent 37 years at Williams-Sonoma in various leadership roles, including as chief strategy and business development officer. During his tenure, Connolly helped take Williams-Sonoma public, launch six retail brands, and grow its annual sales from $4.5M to more than $5B. For almost 20 years, Connolly oversaw all aspects of the company’s direct-to-customer business, and his early advocacy in e-commerce helped transform Williams-Sonoma into one of the world’s largest and most profitable internet retailers.
Connolly founded Supermoon Capital together with Michael Masterson and Grayson Judge, who bring nearly two decades of combined experience investing in healthcare and technology. Masterson co-founded capital advisory firm Sutter Post Advisors and Nevro, a global medical device company, and previously held investment roles at Bay City Capital, a life sciences focused venture capital firm.
“We saw an enormous need for a fund entirely focused on sleep; sleep science is a relatively young but quickly growing field, and the science is highly complex,” said Michael Masterson, co-founder and managing partner of Supermoon Capital. “Many of the sleep-related products and solutions currently on the market are unfortunately unscientific, unproven, and in some cases unhealthy. What we are seeing is an increasing need for science-based sleep solutions, not just business model innovations or marketing. We aim to bridge the gap between science-driven innovation in sleep and commercialization for the Night Market. We’ve assembled an arsenal of sleep science resources that help us identify, back, and develop best-in-class early-stage startups from around the world.”
Through what the firm calls its arsenal of sleep science resources — an extensive network of corporate and strategic relationships and leading scientific experts in sleep — Supermoon Capital applies the latest and most advanced sleep science to inform its investment process and support its portfolio companies. Supermoon Capital has assembled a Sleep Science Collective of the world’s top sleep scientists, prominent academics, and industry experts across a range of relevant fields in sleep that serves as an extended advisory team to the fund and portfolio. Supermoon Capital’s investors include ResMed, a global leader in digital health and the number one provider of connected devices to treat sleep apnea. Supermoon Capital also holds an exclusive strategic relationship with SleepScore Labs that provides its portfolio companies with access to the sleep improvement company’s innovative science and data-backed products and services, like R&D, testing, validation, and corporate programs.
To date, Supermoon Capital has invested in six early-stage startups comprising a global portfolio that spans a range of technology sectors and industries:
- Clair Labs (Tel Aviv, Israel): Revolutionizing patient monitoring for remote healthcare by developing contact-free technology for clinical-grade physiological monitoring.
- Endel (Berlin, Germany): With more than two million users and recently named Apple Watch App of the Year, its AI-generated, personalized soundscapes for circadian optimization improve sleep, reduce stress, and boost productivity.
- EnsoData (Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.): Helping clinicians diagnose sleep apnea and other sleep disorders with its FDA-cleared AI software that analyzes medical waveform data.
- FreshBed (Amsterdam, The Netherlands): A scientifically-designed bed system that regulates air quality, temperature, humidity, and ergonomic comfort for optimal sleep.
“Although we are only in the early innings of sleep science, our portfolio companies have already forged major inroads in tackling some of the most complex issues in sleep — particularly sleep disorder diagnostics and sleep efficiency optimization — and their traction has sparked an uptick in enterprise interest,” said Grayson Judge, co-founder and managing partner of Supermoon Capital. “Healthier sleep based on science is compelling, and the startups we’ve invested in demonstrate the range of opportunities and global innovations happening in the Night Market. As consumers and organizations alike continue to recognize the importance of sleep in their daily lives, we anticipate demand for such science-backed innovations to only intensify.”
