Arun Ramabadran knows how important sleep is. Not only does it help keep people healthy, but it takes the strain off health care systems.
Ramabadran has been in the sleep industry for more than a decade, and during that time, he saw a shift in sleep tests — what used to be tested in clinics shifted to an at-home model, and that ramped up even more during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I saw the writing on the wall,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Instead of fighting the transition, why don’t we get into the new front?’”
He created REM Ware in 2019, which offers a software and hardware solution to help physicians better test and track sleep in their patients.
Ramabadran sells the device directly to providers, such as pulmonologists. Those providers send their patients home with the device, which records their sleep through an app. Data from the app is sent to contractors at REM Ware, who compile it into a report and send it to physicians to review and diagnose the patient.
“[Doctors] were not incentivized to do sleep testing even though sleep was directly affecting the other chronic diseases they were managing,” Ramabadran said. “The idea is the primary care doctor should be the ones really interested in it, but they didn’t have the devices, and their staff wasn’t trained for it. The reality was there wasn’t a good way for doctors to get involved.”
He is now working on two clinical trials with “big” organizations set to start in Q1, which will each have 3,000 to 5,000 studies per month. He is also raising $1.5 million for a pre-seed round to help fund the trials.
After those close, he expects to close a Series A in Q2 for roughly $10 million, then a Series B for up to $50 million in 2024.
“The point is to scale it, change the industry, get more patients tested, then sell it,” he said of an eventual company exit.
The company is based in Tampa, with an office near International Plaza. Ramabadran has 20 employees, with six of those being non-contractors.
He was initially between Tampa and San Antonio for a headquarters, but a news article stating Tampa was one of the most depressed cities in the nation had him officially zeroed in on the region.
“Depression is correlated to sleep,” Ramabadran said. It was a major tipping point for choosing Tampa. He believes he made the right choice.
“The reality is Tampa is where Austin was 10 to 12 years ago. It doesn’t have the sophisticated startup investors yet, but with the West Coast, New York, Texas-based investors moving here ... the whole thing will change. And we can develop the startup market up.”
