Exclusive: Ognomy Sleep raises $20M for at-home testing

Ognomy Sleep, a virtual sleep medicine platform, raised a $20 million Series A, CEO Daniel Rifkin tells Axios exclusively.

The big picture: Investor interest in sleep medicine is building as care moves toward at-home diagnostics and remote monitoring.

"The demand is there, but the bottleneck is awareness," Rifkin says. "You have a massive disorder where 80% of the patients remain undiagnosed."

Follow the money: Catalyst Investors led, with participation from Blue Heron Capital.

Ognomy will use the Series A to expand its clinician network, sales team and partnerships, aiming to grow about fivefold before a potential next financing, Rifkin says.

How it works: Ognomy connects patients with virtual sleep clinicians who manage at-home tests, diagnosis and treatment options, including CPAP, medication and surgery referrals.

The Buffalo, N.Y.-based company makes money primarily through insurance-covered care.

Zoom in: Rifkin says Ognomy uses AI in the background to streamline referrals, testing logistics and patient engagement, but not to make clinical decisions.

Between the lines: The sleep apnea category is gaining momentum from consumer wearables, GLP-1s, emerging non-CPAP therapies and demand for specialty care access.

"You don't have to live near a big metropolitan center to get high-quality care," Rifkin says. "You can live in rural Montana or North Dakota."

State of play: Investors have backed several sleep tech platforms in recent months.

Sleep tech startup Kimba raised $6.5 million in seed funding this month.

Smart sleep product maker Eight Sleep nabbed a $50 million Series D1 round at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation in March.

ProSomnus, a maker of a discreet sleep apnea device, secured $35 million in February.

What's next: Rifkin said the longer-term goal is to take Ognomy beyond the U.S., using its smartphone-based virtual care model to expand access to sleep apnea care internationally.