Korean sleep-tech startup advances to global finals of The Pitch tournament

In a world where stress and screen time have thoroughly disrupted human sleep cycles, venture capitalists are looking for a tech-driven fix. Now, a Korean startup is winning over major tech investors by promising to optimize a good night's rest. Deel, a global human resources platform, announced Monday the 10 Asia-Pacific winners of its seed-stage startup tournament, "The Pitch." Among the elite few advancing to the next stage is Munice, a Seoul-based artificial intelligence (AI) sleep-technology company. The startup operates Nightly, an AI-powered app designed to track sleep data and generate customized audio waves. By synchronizing a user's brainwaves with specific frequencies, the technology aims to actively induce a state of deep sleep. The competition is a high-stakes gauntlet. Deel's tournament pulled in more than 35,000 applicants from around the world. In the regional round held in Singapore on May 12, Munice was whittled down from a shortlist of 45 teams by a panel of tech executives and venture capitalists, including top leaders from ExpressVPN and Bytedance Cloud. The tourname