The Spark: Parenthood Meets Technology
When Radhika Patil and Bharath Patil became parents for the first time, they experienced a common — but seldom discussed — early parenthood suffering: sleep deprivation and worry.Radhika, who had a strong engineering background, realised that many baby products addressed symptoms rather than root causes—and the idea began to take shape.
At the same time, Bharath had deep expertise in electronics, sensors, and machine design. The couple asked: What if a crib could be smart enough to recognise a baby’s sleep pattern and intervene gently, before crying even begins? That thought seeded the founding of Cradlewise.
Founders & Their Roles
Radhika Patil (Co-Founder & CEO): A Master’s graduate in Electronic Systems Design from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Radhika had worked at Qualcomm designing power-management ICs and had built her credentials in embedded electronics. As CEO, she leads the vision, product strategy, engineering culture, and market expansion of Cradlewise.
Bharath Patil (Co-Founder & CTO): Also an IISc electronics alumnus, Bharath led R&D at Texas Instruments, inventor of several sensor and time-of-flight technologies (10+ patents), before co-founding Cradlewise. He oversees hardware design, sensor systems, algorithms, and manufacturing for the smart crib.
Together, the Patils bring a powerful combination of deep product engineering and personal empathy for the parent experience—an unusual pairing in the “baby-tech” space.
The Early Prototype: Tackling Sleep from the Crib Up
In Bengaluru, their journey began with prototyping in 2017: the first innovative bassinet model emerged to address infant-sleep disruption. Cradlewise’s story notes:
“We started with sleep because it is the building block of an endless list of health benefits, such as brain development, forging memories …”
They created a “contact-less baby monitor” with embedded sensors to identify early wake-up signals (minor movements, time deviations) and activate gentle rocking and soothing noises before the baby fully wakes up. Hardware, firmware, and sensor data machine learning became the core. Early pilots in Indian households proved the concept, and then the vision rapidly expanded internationally.
Achieving Traction & Milestones
Cradlewise raised a US$7 million seed round in 2021, led by Footwork and with participation from CRV, SOSV, and Better Capital. That investment allowed scaling of engineering, supply-chain, and operations in India while expanding the global footprint.
By 2023, the company said it had tracked baby sleep for millions of hours, with expanding sales in the US, Canada, and India. For 2024-25, the brand received a stunning boost with Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, publicly endorsing their smart crib for his newborn child. This endorsement gave the product worldwide exposure and credibility.
The product has also won awards: for example, it was ranked among TIME magazine’s “Best Inventions” of 2020.
Product & Differentiation
What makes Cradlewise stand out:
- It uses AI and sensor fusion to recognise early signs of wakefulness and intervene proactively—rather than merely alerting the parent.
- The hardware is designed with premium materials and ergonomic comfort (rocking mechanism, white noise speaker, mobile app monitoring) with both cradle and crib modes (from birth to ~2 years).
- It operates as a direct-to-consumer global brand (US & India) combining hardware, software (app), and data insights—leveraging the founders’ engineering pedigree and product-first mindset.
- As Radhika puts it:
“As an engineer, I learned to think in systems. As a mum, I learned to trust my instincts…and somewhere in the middle….I also developed more resilience than I thought was humanly possible.”
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Challenges, Strategy & Scaling
Hardware + baby-product + tech = a complex mix. The Patils faced multiple challenges:
- Supply chain & manufacturing: From prototyping in Bengaluru, to getting into accelerators (HAX in the US) for hardware-supply-chain access.
- Market positioning: While India was home, the D2C market for premium baby gear was earlier in India, so they pivoted focus to the US market first—recognising early adoption and willingness to pay.
- Trust & safety: For baby products, especially smart cribs, safety, certifications, and credibility matter. Their work includes achieving regulatory clearances and staying parent-trusted.
- Globalisation: Combining operations in India & US, servicing two geographies, managing logistics, warranty, returns, etc—requires dual-huge to scale.
- Their strategy: Double down on engineering differentiation (AI + sensor + hardware), build strong brand credibility (“Apple of baby cribs”), and use global endorsements and data story to win customer trust.
Why Their Story Matters
The story of Cradlewise and the Patils resonates because:
- It stems from a real-life parental problem (lack of sleep) and builds a tech solution—not just a lifestyle accessory.
- It shows how deep engineering (electronics, sensors, firmware) combined with user empathy (parents) can power new categories in consumer hardware.
- It illustrates how Indian innovators can compete globally in hardware & baby-tech brands—not just software startups.
- It highlights how founders who understand both product and production can outpace “digital-only” brands in complex hardware markets.
- It shows perseverance in the hardware startup terrain: prototyping, supply chain, global markets, trust building—a long-game vs typical software startup sprint.
Looking Ahead: Vision & Next Steps
The Patils are focused on expanding the Cradlewise ecosystem:
- Building beyond the smart crib: they talk of toddler beds, additional nursery-connected products, subscription-based sleep-insights services.
- Growing manufacturing in India: A 20,000 sq ft facility in Pune is cited.
- Expanding into global markets, including Australia, Dubai, the UK, and strengthening the US/Canada presence.
- Collecting sleep data (multi-million hours so far) to power analytics, insights, and potentially adjacent products/services around infant health, maternal wellness, and connected nursery platforms.
- Their mission, as per the About page:
“By parents, for parents … better sleep for baby means better sleep for you, which helps you be the parent you want to be!”
