Vesper, a developer of piezoelectric MEMS sensors, closed an $8M financing led by Applied Ventures, LLC, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, Inc., the world’s largest semiconductor equipment company. Vesper also received investments from Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Bose Ventures, Sands Capital, and other undisclosed investors. The round brings Vesper’s total funding to date to $65M.
The funding will enable the startup to scale the mass production of its microphones and support expanded research and development, hiring, international sales offices, as well as grow customer support.
“Applied Ventures is excited to lead this investment round and add Vesper to our portfolio of companies spanning Materials to Systems,” said Frank Lee, Investment Director at Applied Ventures. “Vesper is a leader in piezoelectric MEMS design and we look forward to helping the company further scale its technology.”
“This latest round of financing will enable Vesper to accelerate the technology platform transition from capacitive to piezoelectric MEMS architectures,” said Matt Crowley, CEO of Vesper. “Having the support and expertise of Applied Ventures strengthens our efforts to scale to billions of units shipped.”
“Cumulatively, the overall MEMS microphone ecosystem is expected to grow from $1.2B in 2019 and reach $1.7 billion in 2025 with a 5.4% Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR)*,” said Dimitrios Damianos, PhD., Technology & Market Analyst, Sensing & Actuating at Yole Développement (Yole).
“The ongoing Internet of Voice era creates overflowing opportunities for MEMS microphones in smart speakers, TWS hearables, smart TVs/remotes and other devices. In this dynamic context, the new piezoelectric films developed by Applied Materials for Vesper, focus on reducing microphone size and cost all the while increasing signal-to-noise ratio, proving quite promising for the aforementioned applications.”