SOND, the sleep tech startup of former Bose sleep chief, emerges from obscurity with $7 million

Traditionally, sleep earbuds are designed to drown out outside noise and promote sleep with soothing sounds. But today, a Boston-based startup called Section Introducing a new type of earbuds designed to actively intervene to encourage better sleep.

Founded by A husband An MIT alumnus and former head of Bose’s global sleep division, SOND emerged from obscurity on Wednesday with $7 million in funding. Along with the funding, the company introduced its first product: Dreambuds, a closed, in-ear system that picks up 12 physiological signals from the wearer, then acts on them in real time to help consumers get better sleep.

Its seed investment of $7 million comes from E14 Fund (an MIT fund), Crosslink Capital, Ubiquity Ventures, Alumni Ventures, Meach Cove Capital, and Boston Scientific co-founder John Appel.

To work, the device tracks signals such as breathing, heart rate variability, cardiorespiratory coupling, sleep stages, body position, snoring, and electrocardiogram (SCG, or mechanical vibrations of the chest wall generated by a beating heart).

This sensor data flows in real time to a cloud-based AI sleep coach that then selects a sleep audio program, or creates a bespoke program, and learns over time which one works best for the individual user.

Users can also interact with the AI ​​sleep coach directly by speaking or requesting sleep insights or specific sleep programs from SOND’s own library of over 500 audio programs. (Users can also choose to stream podcasts through the portfolio, if they prefer.) The AI ​​coach can also create audio, such as a themed sleep story, on demand.

It is worth noting that the startup was jointly founded and led by the CEO Yadid Eisenbergwho previously worked at Bose as president of sleep products, where he launched Bose’s Sleepbuds 2 and managed the company’s portfolio of other sleep products. When Bose decided to strategically exit the sleep space, Eisenberg recognized it as an opportunity to establish a startup dedicated to new products in this space, which led him to found SOND in February 2022.

“I had, at that time, spent a significant amount of time on physiology, sensors, audio… I was supposed to do this,” Eisenberg told TechCrunch while sitting in an outdoor café next to co-founder and CTO Amir Lazarovic, who was previously a senior director of software engineering at Google, alongside a prototype of their Dreambuds.

The founders met at MIT, a meeting that also had to do with sleep. Lazarowicz, who was studying distributed systems, had just moved into a family residence and didn’t have a mattress; Eisenberg offered him one of his rooms to use instead. This chance meeting about 14 years ago led to a lifelong friendship.

After MIT, Eisenberg founded a startup called The Sync Project, which linked music to physiological factors such as heart rate and heart rate variability. Bose acquired the startup four years later and eventually led it to work with the second generation of Sleepbuds.

Bose customers often wanted more from their Sleepbuds than noise cancellation, Ayzenberg says: They also wanted sensors to track their sleep and help them improve it. At the time, technology couldn’t pack a lot of sensors into a small AirPods-like form factor while conserving the device’s battery. But by the time Bose stopped using sleep wearables, that had changed.

However, Eisenberg cautioned that the Dreambuds should not be considered equivalent to the Bose Dreambuds III. Instead, he admits that earbuds from rival Ozlo are probably what the next step would have been.

“We did something completely different. Maybe the form factor is the earpiece, but that’s where it ends,” he said.

The system itself works comprehensively without the need for a phone. Instead, the Dreambuds’ charging case includes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, an OLED display, physical buttons, and a speaker. The latter will help you wake up via the alarm even if you fall asleep before putting on the earbuds.

The goal is to prevent users from needing to pick up their phone to control the sleep technology system.

“We have a running joke—we say that giving a phone to someone with insomnia is like running an AA meeting in a liquor store,” Eisenberg says with a laugh. “The idea here is that all you have to do is pop the buds out and your sleep plan will resume,” he explains. “You can also switch to other sleep plans. And you can talk to the coach, just double-tap and say, ‘I’m having trouble sleeping.’ “I want this, or I want that.”

A sleep coach can help you solve specific sleep issues by referring to their data on what has worked for you in the past, whether that’s a breathing exercise, a soothing track, a soundscape, binaural beats, or something else. Ayzenberg asserts that the AI ​​trainer will never talk to you unless you engage it with a double-tap gesture, which he admits could intimidate or even intimidate users.

Lazarovic adds that the AI ​​coach will respond based on the user’s current context. “For example, if you engage right before bedtime, it will ask you: ‘Are you ready to wind down?’ But if you engage after you wake up, it will ask you: ‘How was your night?’”

In addition to hearing your results from the AI ​​coach, Dreambuds owners can review their data and hypnograms (sleep cycle graphs) in the companion app to learn more about their sleep patterns.

The buds themselves have a unique look, as the team placed the sensors facing outward, opting for an artistic style of sensor rather than trying to hide the technology. The headphones also feature wide-frequency drivers for high-fidelity sound, along with microphones and sensors for motion detection.

SOND has conducted two convenience studies and betas, and now aims to put the devices into mass production by the second quarter of 2026, following a crowdfunding campaign to raise additional funds. The company is currently accepting reservations on its website Website.