S
Sleepio
Helps people sleep better
About Sleepio
Sleepio, a digital therapeutics company, was co-founded in 2010 by Peter Hames and Professor Colin Espie. The venture originated from Hames' personal struggle with insomnia, which he overcame using a self-help book on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) authored by Professor Espie, a world-renowned sleep scientist. This experience inspired Hames to partner with Espie to digitize these clinically-proven techniques, making them more accessible. Their collaboration resulted in Big Health, the parent company of Sleepio, with a mission to deliver evidence-based, non-drug mental health solutions at scale.
Read full description
The company operates in the digital health market, offering its solutions primarily to employers, health systems, and national health services like the UK's NHS. The business model involves partnerships and subscription-based services. For instance, employers such as Comcast and LinkedIn provide Sleepio to their employees as a health benefit, aiming to improve productivity and reduce healthcare costs. Sleepio also generates revenue by working with health providers and through direct-to-consumer subscriptions. The company has secured significant funding across multiple rounds, with investors including Octopus Ventures, Kaiser Permanente Ventures, and SoftBank Vision Fund.
Sleepio is a digital program designed to treat insomnia using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I), accessible via web and mobile apps. The program is structured into six interactive weekly sessions, guided by a virtual animated expert called 'The Prof'. It personalizes its approach by having users complete a sleep diary and questionnaires, which allows the AI algorithm to tailor the content to the individual's specific issues. This automated yet customized program teaches users techniques to address negative thoughts and behaviors related to sleep. Numerous clinical trials and studies have validated its effectiveness, showing that users fall asleep faster, spend less time awake at night, and experience improved daytime functioning. In May 2022, the UK's National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended Sleepio as a cost-effective treatment for insomnia, a first for a digital therapeutic.
At a glance
- Status
- Operational
- Founded
- 2010
- Headquarters
- London, United Kingdom
- Employees
- 10
- Open positions
- None listed
- Dealroom signal
- 79.8/100
- Industry
- Health, Wellness Beauty
- Sub-industry
- Health Platform
- Sector
- Health Tech & Medtech, Mental Health, Sleeping, Digital Therapeutics, Tech for Patients, Hard Tech, Digital Care
- Client focus
- b2c
Knowledge graph
More headlines
Funding history
Company financing events and reported valuations.
| Deal type | Date | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GRANT✓Other financing | Jan 2018 | $541K | — | Undisclosed | — |
| SERIES A✓Equity / VC | Jun 2016 | $11M | $45M | JamJar Investments | — |
Financials
Revenue, earnings and other financial measures where available. Years marked “E” are estimates.
Growth signals
Latest recorded traffic for Sleepio is 34K monthly website visits, up 36% over the last three months. Sleepio's team grew 11.1% over the past year.
Similar companies
Company identity and context are open; selected comparison metrics preview what is available on the platform.
Investments and acquisitions
Recent portfolio relationships for companies that also act as investors or acquirers.
Investors
From Dealroom's funding and investor records, grouped by the round each investor first entered.
Series A1 investor entered at this stage
Other known investors2 additional known investors
Gi Fernando MBE
Katie Marrache
Source: Dealroom Talent Intelligence.
Global footprint
team presence
Market sentiment
An AI-synthesised read of the highest-engagement posts about Sleepio on X, ranked by likes and reposts, corporate channels excluded.
Reading the room on X — pulling top posts and synthesizing themes…
Source: X recent search ranked by engagement (likes + retweets) · Synthesis by Claude · Cached for 1 hour
See Sleepio’s full profile on Dealroom
Request a free trial to see the complete deal history, financials, people graph and growth signals.
Takes under a minute. Already use Dealroom? Log in.








