Bengaluru-based Neend (which means sleep in Hindi) was founded by Surbhi Jain in 2021 after a story she recited to her insomniac fiancé put him to sleep in just around 10-15 minutes, a significant improvement from other days where he would require at least a couple of hours to fall asleep. The mission to upstart a sleeping solutions company was further strengthened after Jain’s sleep cycle was also ruined once she contracted the coronavirus.
Jain realised that people slipped into a comfort zone after listening to relatable stories, especially told by familiar accents. Picking up on the thought, she began writing stories while her teammate narrated it. The recording was then uploaded on Neend’s YouTube channel, which was started as a pilot of sorts.
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The YouTube channel’s traffic picked up and soon its official app was launched. Around 18 months on, Neend today has about 30,000 daily active users across platforms—podcasts, the app and YouTube. During the time, the app has seen 0.5 million downloads which continues to grow. Its primary YouTube channel also has around 0.2 million subscribers.
Jain said Neend’s user base was growing 25% month-on-month. On average, a user spends around 15 minutes on Neend — which currently focuses on people aged between 25 and 45 years— each day.
While there are a bunch of apps which help users track their sleep patterns, hosts a library of soothing music to sleep better, Neend takes a step further and offers storytelling in regional languages—which Jain believes is her startup’s USP.
Neend currently has a collection of 1,500 stories in Hindi, English and three other regional languages. It also plans to add Gujarati, Kannada and Bengali soon as demand for its offerings grow.
That regional focus likely sets it apart from global favourites like Calm and Headspace. Including the two, BetterSleep and a few others help people sleep better. “But Indians need someone to take things one step ahead and offer a more practical solution like reciting stories which they feel is closer to them, not just make them meditate or track their patterns. A majority of our listeners, around 60%, listen to stories in Hindi. Devotional and mythological stories are among the most popular ones,” Jain said. “No sleep solutions startup is solving for the category like us. We’ve received feedback that over 90% of our users have fallen asleep faster while also reducing their dependency on sleeping pills,” she added.
The market potential also seems large. According to the Great Indian Sleep Scorecard (GISS) 2022, released by Wakefit, a mattress and home decor company, one in four Indians think they have insomnia.
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Currently, Neend outsources its content requirements which are exclusive to Neend. The company follows a freemium model, wherein it offers around two fresh stories everyday for free while the remaining sit behind a paywall, which helps convert customers at a lower cost. Neend’s customer acquisition cost (CAC) was around the Rs 5 mark.
That cost was offset by selling subscriptions and its own sleep supplements, Neend’s two revenue streams. Going forward the company plans to come up with steps to solve for snoring and sleep apnea. Jain also plans to raise around $5 million in around six months from now, after having received $700k early last year from Better Capital and a clutch of angel investors like Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal and others.