Consultancy case Onera | Partnering from start-up to scale-up, and beyond

MedTech company Onera Health is revolutionizing sleep monitoring with breakthrough technology that tracks vital signs like breathing, heart rate, and more – all from the comfort of your own home. With its innovative approach, Onera makes sleep studies easier, more efficient, and more accessible. TOPIC has been a key partner in helping this promising scale-up grow and evolve. Here’s how.

When it comes to our consultancy services, one key element stands out: our solutions are always tailored to meet the unique needs of our customers. We achieve this by embedding highly skilled software and hardware engineers directly into the customer’s development process. Our support can take various forms—whether as individual experts on a well-defined assignment, as a complete on-site team, or in an advisory role.

This approach allows us to provide scalability, expert guidance, and in-depth technical expertise – all in one. In Onera’s case, we delivered all of these, much to our customer’s delight.

A Wake-Up Call for Sleep Monitoring

After years in the MedTech and wearable industry, Onera’s founder Ruben de Francisco was stunned by the cumbersome sleep monitoring and diagnostics technology. This was especially true for those patients who needed comprehensive sleep data to be correctly diagnosed and who needed to go to a sleep lab for a test, whether to diagnose sleep apnea, restless leg syndrome, narcolepsy, or insomnia. "I quickly realized that sleep monitoring technology hadn’t changed in over 30 years. I knew we could do so much better."

That realization led to the birth of Onera Health eight years ago. His vision was both simple and ambitious: bringing the sleep lab into the patient’s home. "Our goal was to improve the experience for both patients and medical specialists while delivering the gold-standard sleep test, making diagnostics more broadly accessible and, based on that, shortening the time to start treatment.”

A Breakthrough First-Generation Product

In 2020, Onera was in the process of developing its first-generation product: a patch-based sensor system capable of capturing all signals required for Polysomnography (PSG), the gold standard for sleep monitoring.

"Our solution is  ‘full stack’, integrating cloud technology, hardware, and even our own chip. We designed it to deliver clinical-grade quality while being highly efficient in both data transmission and power consumption, using only a small battery. Developing such a complex device—while meeting strict deadlines and medical standards—was a huge challenge."

At this critical stage, Onera turned to TOPIC for expert support. "In those hectic days, we needed additional expertise on board. TOPIC brought deep technical knowledge and a clear understanding of what it takes to move a product to the next level."

The ‘Can-Do’ Attitude

One of the software architects who initially joined the Onera project was Joris van Emden, a senior expert at TOPIC with over 17 years of experience. "At TOPIC, we thrive on connecting software and hardware, always with a ‘can-do’ attitude. This was the perfect project for us, embedding software to transfer data from the sensors to the driver. Within three months, we helped get the system up and running—an exciting feat given the complexity. The best part? That moment when you can proudly say, ‘It’s alive!’ There’s nothing like seeing a device come to life for the first time."

After Joris’ well-defined assignment, a TOPIC team of 4 engineers executed the project further. By 2024, Onera was working on the second-generation product and once again turned to Joris and the TOPIC team to establish the connection between the new device and the driver.

A Partnership Built on Trust and Innovation

For Ruben de Francisco, the collaboration with TOPIC has been great. "In addition to their technical expertise, they truly think alongside us as a customer, always seeking pragmatic and viable solutions. Their mindset, trust, and flexibility make this partnership a great success. We always play fair, ensuring a win-win for everyone involved."

For the TOPIC team, the collaboration with Onera Health has been equally rewarding. Joris: "The Onera team fully embraced us – we worked as one, all focused on achieving results. They value continuous improvement, which made them open to our advice and expertise from testers and data analysts. That mindset only enhances the final product. It’s been a fantastic company to collaborate with!"

Looking Ahead: Expanding Impact

Onera is now focused on helping as many patients as possible by making its product widely available – first in the Netherlands, DACH region, and the U.S., with plans for further expansion. De Francisco: "Patients and doctors love it, and we’re incredibly excited about what’s ahead. I have no doubt that TOPIC will be with us for the journey!"

Joris van Emden - Senior Software Architect at TOPIC  & Ruben de Francisco - Founder and CEO Onera Health

Onera Sleep Test System in use (source: Onera Health)