Blog / December 12, 2016
Last week was a whirlwind of activity for Vesper.
On Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Vesper CTO Bobby Littrell and CEO Matt Crowley traveled to San Jose, CA for the Annual Creativity in Electronics (ACE) Awards. The jet lag was well worth it because Vesper walked away with two awards.
Recognized as Innovator of the Year for his pioneering work in designing the first piezoelectric microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones, Bobby initially conceived of Vesper’s VM1000 — which won the ACE Award for Ultimate Products: Sensors — while a PhD student at the University of Michigan. Securing several Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grants — from NASA, National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Science Foundation (NSF) — Bobby was able to refine his product design and hire a team of MEMS industry experts to launch Vesper in September 2014. Read the press release for more information.
The company had another very big day just two days later. Vesper has been finding that technologies that enable the migration to pervasive voice are clearly attractive to manufacturers of smartphones, smart speakers, wearables/hearables and Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Investors seem equally enthusiastic, and on December 9, 2016 Vesper announced that we raised $15M in series A funding – with Accomplice, a Boston-area venture capital firm focused on early-stage technology companies, as lead investor.
Amazon’s Alexa Fund was one of several additional investors. Steve Rabuchin, vice president of Amazon Alexa, said, “We see the potential for Vesper’s technology to unlock compelling new use cases for Alexa, such as portable electronics where dirt and moisture resistance is an important attribute for microphones, and we are excited to be supporting the company with our investment.” Read the press release for the whole story.
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