Vesper Raises $8 Million to Expand Production and Enter New Markets

Vesper, the pioneer in piezoelectric MEMS microphones and sensors, closed an $8M financing led by Applied Ventures, the venture capital arm of Applied Materials, 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 Boston-based 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," says 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," says Matt Crowley, CEO of Vesper. "Having the support and expertise of Applied Ventures strengthens our efforts to scale to billions of units shipped."

With origins at the University of Michigan, Vesper's piezo MEMS microphones are driving a new era of pervasive voice interfaces and acoustic event-detection products via a proprietary piezoelectric MEMS technology. Applied Ventures invests in technology companies that have the potential to deliver high growth and exceptional returns. Its investments help develop technologies and markets that provide natural extensions to Applied Materials’ core business and stimulate the growth of applications for semiconductors, displays and related products and services.

"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)," says 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."
www.appliedventures.com
www.vespermems.com