Smart Baby Monitor Company Nanit Raises $21M For Data-Driven Sleep Tracking

Israeli-founded company Nanit, which developed a smart baby monitor and sleep tracker, announced on Tuesday that it raised a $21 million investment round led by Jerusalem Venture Partners (JVP), Upfront Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Rho. This funding brings the company’s total capital raised so far to $50 million.

Nanit was founded in 2014 by Dr. Assaf Glazer, Tor Ivry and Andrew Berman and is headquartered in New York with offices in Israel.

The company says it will use the new funding for the next phase of product development and to expand internationally. Nanit indicated that it has seen significant growth over the past two years due to distribution agreements including with Best Buy and Target, retail launches in Canada and the UK, and the introduction of Breathing Wear, a line of cotton wearables that allow parents to track their infant’s breathing motion.

Earlier this year, Nanit unveiled Membook, a service that documents “saveable and shareable moments” that the Nanit camera picks up in the baby’s crib.

“The company has experienced incredible growth from 2018 and our recent funding points to the confidence and demand in the marketplace for innovative consumer products,” said Nanit CEO Sarah Dorsett.

Having a baby is one of the most significant life moments not only for parents but for the entire family. We are so fortunate to be able to use our technology to keep families connected and sharing in this precious new journey, no matter where they are,” she added.

“We’ve increased our commitment to Nanit as we believe the company is strongly positioned to take advantage of the rapid growth in the connected nursery industry. Nanit’s use of artificial intelligence and computer vision has truly revolutionized the baby sleep category and has allowed them to create a far superior consumer product with incredible user engagement,” said Erel Margalit, founder and chairman of JVP. “The unique solution and advanced technology will be further expanded into new and exciting product lines.”

“The coronavirus crisis has demonstrated once again how important technology is for families to stay connected,” he said.

Will Porteous, general partner at RRE Ventures said: “Nanit has solved the age-old problem of teaching your baby to fall asleep. The company’s products are expanding our understanding of ‘life in the crib’ and giving families more ways to share in the joy of parenting. The company has achieved incredible product-market fit and we believe Nanit is well-positioned to address a wide range of health and wellness questions for families and physicians.”

Nanit was named to Fast Company’s list of “world’s most innovative” companies in 2019 as well as to CNBC’s Upstart 100, a list of top 100 companies worldwide, also in 2019.

Nanit says its computer vision tech is being applied in research environments through partnerships with leading institutions such as Cornell-Weill, Yale and HSS to expand sleep research and support the wellbeing of families. The company issued a first State of Sleep report in March, offering a data-driven look into babies’ sleep.