Wireless earbud startup Earin gets $3.5 million in funding as its readies new product

Headphone startup Earin announced today that it’s scored $3.5 million in funding, hot on the heels of announcing its second-generation wireless earbuds back at CES. The new round will go to fund the release of the M-2, due to be released at retail this spring.

The move marks a shift for the company, which took to Kickstarter to fund its first headphones back in 2015, ahead of the recent boom in truly wireless earbuds. It’s a good time to be bullish about the space, though the company and its competition may well run up against Pebble-like competition, now that Apple has made a big impact on the space with its AirPods.

“The latest investment comes at a time when we are truly ready to revolutionize the market with the release of M-2,” the company’s CFO Per Sennstrom said in a release tied the announcement. Not too much pressure, surely.

The company’s first product was met with mixed reviews – not unusual for a first generation crowdfunded hardware project – or, for that matter, fully wireless earbuds. As delays from even the biggest names like Apple have seemingly testified, the technology has been a tough one to crack.

Earin promises better connections, this time out, courtesy of dual antennas, and a technology called Near Field Magnetic Induction, which has been utilized in hearing aids and Bragi’s latest earbuds, promising better bud-to-bud connections that plain old Bluetooth. From the sound of it, some issue still remain, like the ability to cross the three-hour battery barrier without the aid of a charging case.