Richard di Benedetto, the President of Aetna International, has pledged a six-figure investment of his own money as he becomes director and Chairman of SleepCogni. SleepCogni has signed Richard as they prepare to raise investment to commercialise the product.

Aetna is preparing to be bought for $69bn by CVS Health and Mr Di Benedetto is set to join CVS on the executive committee.

Richard will help SleepCogni to enter the insurances market “As chairman of SleepCogni, and also as a personal investor in SleepCogni, I see an enormous growth opportunity ahead of us with the potential to help many people live healthier lives.

“Demand for healthcare across the world has never been so great. Populations are increasing and ageing, people are better informed, technology continues to develop at pace, and there is an unprecedented increase in the prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases.

“Innovative approaches are required to meet these evolving demands and I passionately believe that we need to shift our focus from treatment to prevention.

“For this reason, I am very excited about SleepCogni. There is overwhelming clinical evidence which shows that disrupted sleep is a major factor in many physical and mental illnesses.

“If we can help people to rebuild healthy sleep patterns, we can improve their overall health and ultimately their quality of life.”

Richard Mills, SleepCogni founder and CEO, said: “Attracting such an experienced leader in the healthcare industry to the role of chairman is testament to our achievements to date and how far we have come in such a short period of time.

“We are delighted to have Richard’s backing and shared vision in place as we commence our fundraise and we have no doubt that his experience and knowledge will be instrumental in guiding and strengthening the management team as we look to commercialise SleepCogni into the US sleep clinic market in 2020.”