Vesper

01 / WHAT IT BUILT

What the company did

Vesper is a Boston-based audio innovation company with origins at the University of Michigan. Initially founded in 2009 as Baker Calling, it was re-formed in 2014 when a MEMS industry executive team joined the founders, dedicating the company to improving the acoustic experience in smartphones, wearables, smart home devices and IoT via a patented piezo-MEMS platform. Its piezoelectric MEMS microphones — including the VM1000 — offer very high signal-to-noise ratio, durability and always-listening capability at very low power. The company was funded by Atlas Ventures and strategic partners, and later raised about $73 million in total from investors including Amazon's Alexa Fund, Baidu and Bose Ventures.

03 / EVENT HISTORY

Events in the structured record

1. 2014
   Re-formed

   Vesper was re-formed in 2014 as a MEMS microphone company with a patented piezo-MEMS platform, backed by Atlas Ventures and strategic partners.

2. 2016
   Product partnership

   Vesper partnered with GLOBALFOUNDRIES to produce its first product, the VM1000, and struck packaging deals to ship microphones into smartphones and IoT devices.

3. 2018
   Funding growth

   The company raised $23 million in a round led by American Family Ventures with Baidu, Amazon's Alexa Fund and Bose Ventures participating, reaching $40 million in total funding.

4. 2021
   Further rounds

   Vesper raised $8 million and then $18 million (led by Accomplice, with Amazon, Bose and Applied Materials Ventures among backers), bringing total funding to about $73 million.