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The startup company Kimba has raised $6.5 million in a Seed round. The round was led by Selva Ventures and included Resolute Ventures, Able Partners, Barrel Ventures, Palette Ventures, Supermoon Capital, Air Ventures, Beyond 22, and Fresh Fund, which was the first investor in the company. The funding was raised in two stages: $1.1 million in a pre-Seed round, followed by an additional $5.4 million in the Seed round.
The company has developed an AI-based device designed to improve sleep quality through scent therapy. It was developed in collaboration with sleep and neuroscience researchers and is intended to actively enhance sleep quality and recovery.
The story behind the startup is distinctly Israeli and is connected to post-traumatic stress disorder following military service. Kimba’s founders are Ben Fuxbruner (CEO) and Gabi Beck (CTO). Fuxbruner, a former soldier in the Oketz unit, was seriously injured during Operation Protective Edge. Following the injury, he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic insomnia. After years of searching for solutions, and while studying together for a degree in mechanical engineering at Tel Aviv University, Fuxbruner and Beck turned to research in the fields of sleep and olfaction and developed the system that Fuxbruner himself needed.
The technology was clinically validated in a study led by former Technion president and sleep medicine pioneer Prof. Peretz Lavie.