Ten Asia-Pacific winners of The Pitch startup tournament pose during its Asia-Pacific regional event in Singapore, May 12. Courtesy of Deel
In a world where stress and screen time have thoroughly disrupted human sleep cycles, venture capitalists are looking for a tech-driven fix. Now, a Korean startup is winning over major tech investors by promising to optimize a good night’s rest.
Deel, a global human resources platform, announced Monday the 10 Asia-Pacific winners of its seed-stage startup tournament, “The Pitch.” Among the elite few advancing to the next stage is Munice, a Seoul-based artificial intelligence (AI) sleep-technology company. The startup operates Nightly, an AI-powered app designed to track sleep data and generate customized audio waves. By synchronizing a user’s brainwaves with specific frequencies, the technology aims to actively induce a state of deep sleep.
The competition is a high-stakes gauntlet.
Deel’s tournament pulled in more than 35,000 applicants from around the world. In the regional round held in Singapore on May 12, Munice was whittled down from a shortlist of 45 teams by a panel of tech executives and venture capitalists, including top leaders from ExpressVPN and Bytedance Cloud.
The tournament itself has drawn significant backing from Wall Street and Silicon Valley heavyweights. JPMorgan Chase is serving as a presenting partner, alongside major corporate sponsors including Google, Stripe and the marquee venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
For its regional victory, Munice secures $50,000 in immediate seed funding and a plane ticket to Paris, where the global finals will kick off. There, 100 global finalists will pitch for a chance to win an additional $1 million in investment.
The rise of companies like Munice underscores a broader trend in the tech industry, where wellness and biometric monitoring are being aggressively commercialized.
“The Pitch was designed to discover promising startups based purely on merit and potential, rather than local networks,” said Park Jun-hyung, sales director at Deel Korea.
By using AI to tackle the global problem of insomnia, Munice is betting that sleep optimization is the next frontier of the tech economy.
This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.