Cradlewise, a Silicon Valley-based baby technology company that makes smart cribs for babies, has raised a seed round of $7M led by new venture capital firm Footwork with significant participation from CRV and follow on from existing investors SOSV and Better Capital. Other notable investors participating include Katrina Lake (founder of Stitch Fix), Jeremy Cai (CEO of Italic), Dilip Goswani (CTO of Molekule) and Sonny Vu (ex-CEO of Misfit Wearables).
“We are so excited to be working with such well regarded VC firms and angel investors who have a deep understanding of connected hardware and the consumer market,” said Radhika Patil, Co-Founder of Cradlewise. “We believe that Cradlewise is uniquely positioned in this competitive space as the only smart sleep product designed to impact an outcome and not just give notifications. We will continue to lead in this space by expanding the capabilities of the product in the areas of a baby’s health and safety.”
Nikhil Basu Trivedi, co-founder & General Partner at Footwork has joined the board. “Cradlewise is the only baby product in the market that uses deep tech and AI to learn the baby’s sleep patterns and growth trends. With software updates that build on this rich data, a characteristic of the very best connected hardware companies such as Nest, Peloton, Tesla, and Tonal, Cradlewise is pioneering the connected nursery,” said Nikhil.
Mike Smith, Footwork co-founder & General Partner, and former President & COO at Stitch Fix, said, “Baby care has always been a challenge. The pandemic has only made it more challenging for new parents. Cradlewise is on a mission to help sleep deprived parents so that they can spend more quality wake time with babies.”
“Cradlewise isn’t just a smart crib, it is a mental health solution for parents,” said Kristin Baker Spohn, General Partner at CRV. “Having spent much of my career focused on the intersection of technology and health, Cradlewise is a great example of how smart technology can be used to help ensure that both babies and their parents can get a good night’s rest, which is truly one of the most important elements for staying healthy.”
“As a working mom of 3 kids, I’m excited to see the next generation of solutions for our kids coming from parents themselves. Hearing Radhika’s founding inspiration, to build a crib for her baby to solve the sleep challenges she experienced balancing work and family, it is a mission and product I instantly connected with,” said Katrina Lake, founder of Stitch Fix.
The company maintains offices in both the San Francisco Bay Area, California and Bangalore, India. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s innovation and technology roadmap and grow their team with senior hires in marketing, operations and product.
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.