Audience Rings Up $15M For Clear Cellphone Calls
By Scott Denne
Using technology based on the human hearing system, fabless semiconductor company Audience Inc. has announced a $15 million Series C round to push its noise-suppression chips into wide-scale production.
The round was provided pro-rata by the company's existing investors: New Enterprise Associates, Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance, according to Chief Executive Peter Santos, who declined to disclose the company's valuation.
The company's voice processing chips are aimed primarily at the cellphone market. With the company's technology, cellphones can greatly reduce the amount of background noise on a call.
Investors have a longer outlook for the company's technology than the current opportunity in cellphones.
"I should be able to use your voice as an interface for so many things," such as a television, said George Pavlov, a general partner with Tallwood and member of the company's board. "We have a fundamental belief that voice will become an interface and this technology will help enable that."
Audience mostly competes against equipment manufacturers that have in-house teams dedicated to noise reduction. "Although we benchmark way ahead of them, their work is free," Santos said.
Audience also competes against smaller companies that are working on the same problem, but the technology, which Audience has been working on since 2000, is difficult to master.
"What we've seen is that our system, in addition to better performance, works more consistently than any other out there. It's pretty easy to get a product to demo in a conference room or a lab" but tougher to get a product that works in all environments, Santos said.
The company is currently "engaged with a number of customers" and has cellphones with its technology on the market in Asia, but the company doesn't expect to begin achieving significant revenue until later this year, Santos said.
The proceeds of the round will be used to increase the company's sales and marketing capabilities and to accelerate product development. Its first product was released last year, Santos said.
Audience raised its first round of venture capital in 2004 with a $7 million Series A round led by Tallwood and Vulcan. New Enterprise Associates made its first investment in the company when it led its $20 million Series B round in 2006. The company has also raised between $2 million and $3 million in angel money, Santos said.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company has about 50 employees, Santos said.
In addition to Pavlov, the company's board includes Forest Basket, a general partner with New Enterprise Associates, and Steve Hall, a managing director with Vulcan Ventures.