Doppler Labs today announced the close of a $17 million Series B investment round led by The Chernin Group, David Bonderman’s Wildcat Capital Management and Acequia Capital. As previously announced, the round also included investments from Live Nation Entertainment, Universal Music Group and WME.
This financing follows Doppler Labs’ unveiling of the Here Active Listening System, the first in-ear system that uses two truly wireless buds and a connected smartphone app to let you instantly control and personalize your live audio environment. The Here system won critical acclaim from tech and entertainment critics around the world after launching on Kickstarter on June 2nd, and has catalyzed a discussion about the future of both wearable technology, and “hearables,” wearable tech for the ears.
Noah Kraft, CEO and Co-Founder of Doppler Labs, stated:
“We started Doppler Labs less than two years ago with a vision of creating a new kind of immersive wearable tech. We are humbled and elated by the response from media and consumers after unveiling the Here Active Listening System, and by the support we have received from investors. We envision a post-mobile future where all people use a computer, speaker and mic in their ears to enhance how they interact with each other and their environment, and we work every day to create products that move us closer to achieving that vision.”
Fritz Lanman, Doppler Labs’ Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, shared:
“Here is just the tip of the iceberg. The Here Active Listening System is our first step towards creating true ‘bionic hearing.’ Giving you full control over how you hear the world is an innovation in and of itself, but more importantly, Here allows us to build a foundation to create tech that could transform the way people interact with sound forever.”
The Here Active Listening System uses two wireless buds and a connected smartphone app to provide you with the tools to instantly personalize any live audio environment. Use Here’s volume sliders, EQ, pre-sets and effects to transform real world audio for everyday scenarios like concerts (turn up the bass or add reverb to live music at a show), airplanes (suppress the sound of a jet engine or a crying baby on a long flight), sporting events (bring down the rumble of the crowd) or simply turn down the volume in open office environments or during your commute to remove all unwanted noise from your life.
Doppler Labs has assembled a proven team of leaders from the fields of product design, engineering, and acoustics who draw upon their years of experience at world-class companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Nest and Dropbox. Kennard Nielsen, Doppler’s VP of Product Design, leads the product development team following previous posts as Senior Director of Product for the Nike FuelBand and SportWatch GPS, and as the head of Amazon’s product design team for the first four Kindle Fire tablets.
Dr. Jeff Baker, Doppler’s VP of R&D previously served as Chief Technology Officer at Interlink Electronics where he worked on sensor technology for companies like Tesla Motors, RIM, Samsung, and Medtronic. Gints Klimanis, Doppler’s Director of DSP, brings more than two decades of audio software and signal processing experience, most recently leading audio projects at Google’s Nest Labs and at Apple.
With forty-seven employees including thirty engineers, Doppler Labs is currently headquartered in New York and San Francisco with a dedicated R&D facility in Camarillo, California and a dedicated manufacturing facility in Shanghai, China. The new Series B investment will provide the company with the resources to accelerate the development of their technology, hire more employees, and launch new products on a faster timeline.
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