Austrian USound receives €10M to support the development of its audio products
04 August, 2023,
14:01
Vienna-based USound, a developer and supplier of MEMS speakers for wearable and bearable devices, has announced the receiving a €10 million growth investment led by eQventure. The round will support MEMS production ramp-ups for various true-wireless-stereo.
- USound is an audio company that develops and supplies hearing aids and MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) speakers for wearable and hearable devices. In March 2023, USound introduced the Active Linearisation Algorithm (ALA), a signal processing tool designed to minimize MEMS speakers’ total harmonic distortion (THD).
- According to the company, its MEMS speakers are 50% smaller, consume 80% less energy, and have a broader frequency range than its competitors. These speakers can be incorporated into various audio devices, including Bluetooth earphones, headphones, smartphones, VR/AR glasses, wearables, and over-the-counter hearing aids.
- The investment round was led by Austria’s leading venture capital investor, eQventure, with participation from angel investors such as Andreas “Andy” Bechtolsheim, Hermann Hauser, Ferruccio Bottoni, Andrea Rusconi-Clerici, and Herbert Gartner.
- To date, in March, the company also announced a collaboration with partners to develop and deliver a design for OTC hearing aid. The collaboration involves USound’s newest Kore 4.0 audio module, ASE Chun-Li’s compact Bluetooth Micro SiP and OBO Pro2’s hearing aid design expertise.
“After announcing our cooperations with major audio ODMs like Luxshare-ICT at the end of 2022 and Concraft / OBO Pro2 at the beginning of 2023, many OEM customers started using USound’s MEMS speakers for their next generation audio products. A new age for the audio industry has just begun,”
Ferruccio Bottoni, Chief Executive Officer at USound stated.
- USound will use the fresh investment to accelerate the development of high-volume MEMS production ramp-ups for various true-wireless-stereo (TWS) earbud and over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid customers.