Dirac Raises Equity to Accelerate Growth in Audio Innovation

Swedish sound processing pioneer Dirac announced the completion of a direct share equity issue that raised $17.73-million USD (150 MSEK) from new investor TIN Fonder and current investor DIG Investment. According to Dirac CEO Peter Friedrichsen, the new equity raise values the company at just under $142.2-million USD and positions Dirac to fully leverage and lead what it believes will be the next great era in audio driven by software rather than hardware alone.

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.

Native Instruments, EMH Partners, and Francisco Partners announced an agreement where the Berlin-based music creation company will sell the majority of its shares to leading technology-specialized investment firm, Francisco Partners. Both EMH Partners and the founding shareholders will remain involved with NI as significant minority shareholders. The agreement was described as necessary to support a new expansion strategy for Native Instruments.

DSP Concepts announced a collaboration with the Automotive Systems Division of Bose Corporation to bring the company’s Active Sound Management (ASM) solutions into Audio Weaver. Engineers from DSP Concepts and Bose have completed work demonstrating the effectiveness of one of those ASM solutions – Bose QuietComfort Road Noise Control (RNC) – within the Audio Weaver environment, adding to the platform’s library of nearly 500 market-proven modules available to developers through a drag-and-drop graphical interface.

Shure is strengthening its focus on software solutions by announcing a strategic investment in Finnish software company Ab Wavemark Oy. Known for its microphone monitoring software solutions for theatre and broadcast, such as Wavetool and WTAutomixer, Wavemark has recently expanded its software portfolio into content streaming applications. It now offers WTAutomixer, a plug-in enabling seamless auto-mixing for uses like podcasting, remote learning, and house of worship services.