Berlin-based Mimi Hearing Technologies announced the closing of $25 million in Series B funding. The funding round is led by MIG Capital in a consortium with a larger Munich-based family office and Salvia, the family office of Helmut Jeggle, along with additional German family offices and existing shareholders.
Mimi Hearing Technologies integrates hearing solutions into consumer electronics products, including TVs, soundbars, headphones and earbuds, allowing users to adapt the audio signal to their unique hearing ability, compensating for less than perfect hearing. This creates an optimized sound experience where listeners can hear more details, better enjoy music and follow dialog.
Mimi licenses its hearing enhancement technology electronic device manufacturers, streaming providers and hearing aid companies. The additional funding significantly enhances their successful and ongoing efforts to deliver better and healthier hearing experiences to millions of people worldwide.
"The leading investors of our Series B garnered international attention last year as the founding investors in BioNTech, the NASDAQ listed German biotech company that, together with Pfizer, developed the first Covid-19 vaccine and is now valued at approximately $70 billion," notes Mimi CFO Moritz Bratzke. "Their investment in Mimi is another testament not only to the depth and breadth of the German venture capital climate, but also to the importance and tremendous commercial potential of Mimi's vision."
The proceeds enable Mimi to significantly expand its product offerings in existing device categories such as headphones and TV displays, as well as to move into additional signal processing and audio platforms, including smartphones, among others. Mimi's audio personalization technology is currently embedded in a number of products including headphones from Skullcandy, and German premium-audio brand beyerdynamic, as well as in TV products from TPV Philips. The Series B funding also comes on the heels of newly announced partnerships with San Diego based Cleer Audio and Chinese smartphone OEM Shenzhen Rillya.
"We are excited to support Mimi in achieving its ambition to build a disruptive hearing health platform, particularly given their track record of attracting great customers for their software business in multiple categories," said Boris Bernstein, Partner, MIG Capital. "Mimi's unique and protected IP not only personalizes sound sensation but also makes a major contribution to understanding and protecting hearing."
In addition to expanding existing product offerings and fostering the development of additional product categories such as smartphones, the Series B funding facilitates expansion of sales and marketing operations in China and the United States, which together are home to many of the leading consumer electronics manufacturers and content providers.
"As a former board member of Sivantos (ex Siemens Audiology Solutions), I gained appreciation for the huge need in the audiology space and thus the demand for innovative products," says Helmut Jeggle, founder and managing partner at Salvia. "Mimi's technology and expansion plans have positioned the company to become an international standard-bearer for hearing wellbeing and sound personalization, and we are excited to help them achieve that vision."
Skullcandy Partnership
Simultaneously, Mimi Hearing Technologies announced a new partnership with lifestyle audio brand Skullcandy which is offering its latest collection of true wireless earbuds led by Grind Fuel with Skull-iQ Smart Feature Technology to allow hands-free voice control and Personal Sound powered by Mimi, for a customizable audio experience.
"Skullcandy is known for breaking boundaries for how users experience audio, and with Mimi Sound Personalization this can be taken a step further, where each user's hearing health is a main focus of their listening experience," says Philipp Skribanowitz, Mimi CEO, "Skullcandy and Mimi both share the same commitment to providing users with the latest innovative technology, and we are proud to join forces with our new partner to bring a better and healthier listening experience to Skullcandy users."
Personal Sound powered by Mimi products remembers the user's profile each time the earbuds are turned on for a custom experience designed to promote hearing health. "Skullcandy is dedicated to creating accessible products with meaningful technology for our fans. Supporting individually-tuned and healthy listening habits with Mimi will have a positive, lifelong impact on our fans' enjoyment and well-being," says Jason Hodell, Skullcandy CEO. "Partnering with Mimi is a wonderful example of this core mission coming to life."
Partnership with Cleer Audio
Mimi also announced a new partnership with Cleer Audio, the San Diego based audio manufacturer. Cleer Audio's new Ally Plus II true wireless earbuds will offer users in the United States the ability to assess their hearing health and enjoy an enhanced listening experience through Mimi Sound Personalization.
The partnership between Cleer Audio and Mimi will allow users to test their hearing ability and health, and create a more responsible audio experience with Mimi's patented suite of sound augmentation technologies. "As we continue to spend more hours listening to audio on our devices the issue of hearing health is becoming an even bigger problem," states Philipp Skribanowitz. "The work we are doing with Cleer Audio is an opportunity to help reduce hearing loss and provide customers with an easy solution that provides them with hearing protection, sound augmentation and personalization features."
"We are thrilled to introduce Mimi Sound Personalization into our newest earphones and headphones available through the Cleer+ app," says Patrick Huang, President of Cleer Audio. "The inclusion of hearing optimization and wellness features in our products will certainly bring added value to our products and customers."
The Ally Plus II true wireless earbuds are now available in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and China. Additional markets will be added in 2022.
www.Skullcandy.com
www.cleeraudio.com
www.mimi.io
