Oslothe maker of comfortable, easy-to-use “sleepbups” that drown out outside noise so you can rest better is turning its product into a platform.
The company’s plan began to take shape last month with the announcement of a collaboration between Ozlo and the Calm meditation app. But it opened up its pace at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, as the company met with prospective partners to expand its reach.
These new partners could help Ozlo attract new audiences and create a revenue model beyond consumer-focused hardware and the high-margin world of software subscriptions and healthcare. For example, software features that use artificial intelligence or are designed to provide relief to users with tinnitus could be offered as premium subscriptions. And a recent acquisition of a neurotech startup will help Ozlo expand beyond being a consumer product and into the medical device market.
How Ozlo’s platform ambitions begin
Founded by former Bose employees, Ozlo was always about building an ecosystem, Ozlo co-founder and CEO NB Patil explained on the sidelines of CES.
“The way we did this from the beginning was we built the iOS and Android SDK — so our first-party app actually runs on that SDK. That means everything you see in our app can be made available to anyone,” Patil said.
Mental wellness company Calm, for example, uses the SDK to tell whether its sleep and meditation content is really resonating with its customers. While Calm can’t tell from its own app whether customers have fallen asleep, Ozlo’s sensors can. The device detects how body movements and breathing rates change and this data is sent to the Ozlo charging case. There, a machine learning algorithm determines whether someone is asleep or relaxed.
Ozlo’s smart case has other sensors as well, including a temperature sensor and a light sensor that can add more data.
Now, this information can be shared with apps like Calm and others.
For example, if a user started playing a breathing exercise, Ozlo could sense if their breathing rate had decreased and share that data with their partner. If the exercise is unsuccessful, the partner will know to change the pattern or do something different.
“So there are two parts,” notes Patil. “Take real-time action when the customer achieves the desired state [which Ozlo does with its feature that can shut off sounds after the user falls asleep] and the other part, which is really important, actually—which content creators don’t think about enough—is, are they investing in the right content?”
Patil explains that content creators for these types of meditation and sleep aid apps tend to invest in volume without measuring whether their content is effective or not.
“They don’t really understand how it works in the field because there’s no data,” he says.
This relationship could also add another revenue stream to Ozlo’s business beyond selling hardware. For example, if a customer is asked to upgrade their subscription to the partner’s product, Ozlo could take part of that transaction.
Patil told TechCrunch that the company is already in discussions with other sleep and meditation apps, but this closed-loop feedback system could be used with any type of content, including therapy or even audiobooks.
Ozlo is also working on tinnitus treatment tools to address the headphone problem that affects 15% of its customer base. The company partnered with Walter Reed Hospital last year to begin a clinical study on the problem and found that playing the correct masking frequency overnight for several weeks can trick the brain into stopping the stimulus signals that produce the ringing sounds.
Patil says the tinnitus treatments will be available via subscription and will be released in the second quarter of 2026.
An AI to help you sleep better
Ozlo is also working to expand the knowledge it provides to its customers, and artificial intelligence is an increasingly important part. The company released Sleep Patterns in its app in November to help clients understand how long and well they slept, what their patterns are over the past few weeks, and what factors could disrupt their rest.
This year, Ozlo plans to introduce an AI agent that customers can text and use as a “sleeping buddy.” (The company revealed the name “buddy” for its AI agent in an in-app Easter egg. The app displays an animated character — “buddy” — that runs across the top of the screen when you open and close the case five times in a row.)
By integrating with other wearables and Apple’s HealthKit, Ozlo will be able to better understand a user’s patterns and what they need to sleep better. It also wants to be able to connect to IoT devices, such as smart thermostats, to set the right sleeping temperature for users once they open the case at night.
AI features are expected in the second quarter.
New material, EEG insights on the way
Ozlo’s next-gen case will address the issue of earphones sometimes not fitting properly into the charger.
“We changed the contours inside the case — when you mount [the sleepbud]it’s perfect. And then we’ll have a Bluetooth button to do the pairing,” says Patil.
In addition, the new device will include a redesigned antenna and extension for improved range and add an amplifier to boost how loud the headphones can be to drown out plane and train noise when needed. This updated hardware will also arrive in Q2.
In terms of products, Ozlo will launch a bedside speaker in Q2 that will offer similar functionality to the Sleepbuds, but won’t need to go in the ear. A 4×6-inch speaker will also have its own sensor, allowing it to do things like track how many times you’ve woken up for bathroom breaks or alert others if you’ve fallen.
The speaker would allow the company to market to families with children under 13, as children are not recommended to wear headphones at night. It could also make sense for older people who aren’t as tech-savvy and don’t want to deal with in-ear devices.
Like the popular Hatch alarm clockOzlo is working on adding a light to a product in the future to gently wake you up. (The time frame for the launch is still to be determined.)
The acquisition game
Acquisitions are also part of Ozlo’s growth strategy.
The 60-person Boston-based company just acquired Segotia, a neurotechnology company from Ireland focusing on EEGwhich has created “audible” technologies. Ozlo believes this will allow him to bring brain-level insights to his consumer device and later develop tools to do real-time sleep intervention.
“Basically, we’re custom-designing the headset that will measure the electrical signals from your ear. From that, you can actually pull the delta signals from the brain, and you should be able to tell what your brain is doing when it comes to sleep or when it comes to awareness and all that,” Patil explained.
A product incorporating EEG technology will be released in 2027, allowing the company to move into medical products as well.
With a busy year ahead, Ozlo will need to execute each new feature and product well at a fast pace in order to maintain its current pace and grow its customer base. It will also require additional capital. Patil told TechCrunch that the company is in the process of closing a Series B round now, with more details to come next month.
