TechCrunch Battlefield (NYC 2014) finalists Mimi Hearing Technologies just closed its $25 million Series B funding to continue whispering its mission of hearing well-being from the rooftops. The company recently announced a series of high-profile partnerships with Skullcandy, Cleer and Beyerdynamic, and is now plowing onwards with its fresh infusion of cash from MIG Capital and ATHOS.
“There’s a lot of scope for software-based solutions that can deal with things beyond hearing difficulties,” Nick Clark, one of the founders of Mimi, who heads up the company’s R&D, told me a while back. “You can start doing subtle things that benefit a broader and broader audience depending on their differences in hearing.”
Mimi has one of the most popular at-home hearing testing apps, where around 50,000 people per month test their hearing. The company has made the same technology available to headphone manufacturers as an SDK. The apps can then use these hearing profiles to create customized audio outputs specifically tailored to your hearing. That means that it’s possible to hear better without turning the volume up to make up for the areas of your hearing where you may have hearing loss. The theory is that this prevents further hearing loss.
“You can buy Skullcandy headphones, download the application and you create your profile there,” explains Mimi’s CEO and founder Philipp Skribanowitz. “But this profile is also compatible with other partners, and you can use it everywhere. We also have developed tests on a TV for Philips, so you just sit on your couch and do the test on your TV.”
The money is earmarked for further investment in the company’s technology, especially in terms of expanding its offerings across headphone and TV integrations. The company will also be ramping up the expansion of sales and marketing operations across the U.S. and Asia.
“The leading investors of our Series B consortium — MIG, Athos and Salvia — garnered international attention last year as the founding investors in BioNTech, the Nasdaq-listed German biotech company that, together with Pfizer, developed the first COVID-19 vaccine and is now valued at approximately $70 billion,” noted Mimi CFO Moritz Bratzke. “Their investment in Mimi is another testament not only to the depth and breadth of the German venture capital climate, but also to the importance and tremendous commercial potential of Mimi’s vision.”