Vesper Raises $23M Series B Led by AmFam

Vesper, developer of advanced piezoelectric sensors, has closed a $23M Series B round led by American Family Ventures, with participation from Accomplice, Amazon Alexa Fund, Baidu, Bose Ventures, Hyperplane, Sands Capital, Shure, Synaptics, ZZ Capital and other undisclosed investors.

“Vesper’s ZeroPower Listening capabilities coupled with its ability to withstand water, dust, oil, and particulate contaminants enables uses that have never before been possible. We are excited about Vesper’s quest to transform our connected world, including IoT devices” – Principal of American Family Ventures, Katelyn Johnson.

“Our vision is for Alexa to be everywhere, and that means devices need to be built with durable, high-quality components that stand up to the demands of many different environments, especially on-the-go scenarios that require better power efficiency. Vesper has become further embedded in the Alexa community through its integrations with various development kits and integrated solutions for Amazon AVS, and this follow-on investment is a testament to their continued momentum” – Director of the Amazon Alexa Fund, Paul Bernard.

The demand for MEMS microphones will reach over 5.6 billion units, with over $1.1 billion in revenue, in 2018, according to an Acoustic MEMS and Audio Solutions report from Yole Développement. To meet demand, Vesper has partnered with tier one manufacturing partners such as GLOBALFOUNDRIES, Unisem and TSMC that can scale to any volume.

Vesper MEMS microphones represent a radical shift from capacitive MEMS microphones. Vesper’s piezoelectric design is waterproof, dustproof, particle-resistant and shockproof. From the kitchen to the beach, piezoelectric MEMS microphones make voice-interface devices practical in any environment. They are also ideally suited for far-field applications such as microphone arrays.