sensiBel is pleased to announce that it has been selected by the EIC Scaling Club as one of the highest-potential European deep tech scale-ups poised to make a positive, global impact.

The EIC Scaling Club unveiled the selection of the first 48 European deep tech scale-ups to join its curated community of standout companies, investors, corporate innovators, mentors, media firms and other industry stakeholders. sensiBel will join the international high-level network effective immediately.

sensiBel was carefully selected based on a number of factors and falls one within four predefined market sector opportunities, namely Next-Gen Computing. 

The full list can be consulted here eicscalingclub.eu/news/48

"We are humbled and honored to be selected to join the exclusive club of high-potential deep tech scale-ups. We look forward to work together, learn and share experiences with the EIC Scaling Club community to grow the value of our differentiated technology", says Sverre Dale Moen, sensiBel CEO.

Backed by the European Innovation Council, the flagship programme of the European Commission with a budget north of €10 billion, the EIC Scaling Club’s mission is to significantly grow the value of the selected world-class businesses and help maximise their positive impact on a global level.

The EIC Scaling Club will assist sensiBel and the other hand-picked deep tech scale-ups with fundraising support, leadership mentoring and coaching, corporate partnership identification and matchmaking, media visibility, recruitment, and much more.

sensiBel will be part of an esteemed community that will grow to 120+ deep tech champions in the near future, which the EIC Scaling Club will surround with hundreds of the world’s leading investment firms, corporations, media representatives, vetted business mentors and other industry stakeholders.

"On behalf of all the partners working together to turn the EIC Scaling Club into a 'catalyst for scale', we welcome the first 48 companies into the fold and are delighted that sensiBel is part of the mix. In unison with our investor, corporate, mentor and media stakeholder members, we will ensure that the selected deep tech companies derive as much value for their businesses as possible, as fast as possible,” said William Stevens, co-founder and group managing director of Tech Tour, coordinator of the EIC Scaling Club.

“Time is of the essence when building category leaders in the deep tech sector, and our goal is to accelerate our company members on their scale-up journey," added Stevens.

About sensiBel

sensiBel is a Norwegian deep-tech company developing next generation MEMS microphones. We introduce patented optical technology to the microphones to enable true studio-quality performance in a small size package. sensiBel’s goal is to bring high quality MEMS microphones into wide range of products and set a new standard in miniature microphone performance. We believe in professional grade audio for everyone.

About the EIC Scaling Club

The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.

The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.

The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership with Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.

For more information and a contact form, please visit EICScalingClub.eu

sensiBel is pleased to announce a successful EUR 7 million funding round with the leader in professional audio Sennheiser and including existing shareholders. The funds will be used to expand production and invest in scalability.

The independent family-owned company Sennheiser is leading the funding round of total EUR 7M together with existing main shareholders TRUMPF Venture, Skagerak Capital, Investinor, SINTEF Venture, MP Pensjon and Halden Kommunale Pensjonskasse.

sensiBel’s patented optical MEMS microphone enables a generational shift in miniature microphone performance.  The 80 dBA SNR (14 dBA noise floor), 132 dB dynamic range, 24-bit digital output and with low power consumption performance is the long-awaited solution to electroacoustic challenges in high-performance audio and sound acquisition applications. These applications include enterprise video conferencing systems, 3D spatial audio capture, Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) headphones, high-end smartphones and many more. The microphone is now sampling with lead customers.

"sensiBel shares the same vision as Sennheiser and we are proud to welcome Sennheiser as investor” says sensiBel CEO Sverre Dale Moen, and continues “we believe an investment from such a highly recognized audio company speaks to the merits of the technology and the potential for optical MEMS technology to shape the future of miniature microphones. We strongly believe in working with long-term investors like Sennheiser to bring products from this unique technology to the market, and will continue to evaluate additional investors for future capital raises”. 

"We want to grow sustainably as a company. In addition to investments in our existing business, this also includes investments in promising future fields outside of our company, providing these align well to our company and our vision," explains Co-CEO Daniel Sennheiser. Andreas Sennheiser adds: "sensiBel's innovative optical MEMS technology is clearly this type of promising emerging field. As investors, we look forward to actively driving forward this groundbreaking development."

Please follow this link for the Sennheiser press release: Sennheiser Press Release 

Contact:

Sverre Dale Moen, sensiBel CEO (sverre.d.moen@sensibel.com)

Sondre Graff, sensiBel CFO (sondre.graff@sensibel.com)

We are excited to release sensiBel’s second white paper. We invite all MEMS microphone enthusiasts and audio industry professionals to explore the paper and join us on the journey to reinvent the microphone!

Multi-microphone solutions have been increasingly replacing single microphones to improve acoustic performance and end user experience. The overall acoustic performance goal is to achieve a high-quality reproduction of the desired signal (voice, music etc) without any noise (undesired environmental sounds or system noise). By arranging multiple microphones in specifically chosen microphone arrays and using digital processing algorithms, system designers have been able to increase directionality and the system level SNR of the audio capture over single microphone implementations.

Combining the superior microphone array beamforming performance with advanced system processing features allows, among many other other applications, clearer voice calls, superior audio recordings, more productive conference calls and immersive 3D AR/VR audio experiences. The SBM100 series brings this level of performance to MEMS microphones and to beamforming arrays for the first time. 

This white paper describes how the sensiBel SBM100 80 dBA SNR optical MEMS microphone provides significant performance benefits for three main types of microphone array beamforming algorithms (Delay-and-Sum, Differential and MVDR).

Click here to fill out the form and receive the white paper by email.

Breakthrough small size digital output MEMS microphone enabling true-studio quality performance for a wide range of audio products, high-performance microphone arrays for far-field sound capture and many more applications with new and improved user experiences.

We are thrilled to present the world’s highest performance MEMS microphone at CES2024.  Hearing is believing! Visit our suite to listen to the microphone solutions and discuss how the next generation of MEMS microphone will benefit your application. The microphone is based on patented optical technology and represents a generational leap in MEMS microphone performance compared with conventional MEMS microphone technologies. 

If you are visiting CES, please stop by to see our demo and meet our team. 

When: January 9 - 12, 2024

Where: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Location:  Venetian tower, 10th floor 

Please email us at sales@sensibel.com to set up an appointment.  

The solution for demanding applications

The microphone is the most fundamental component in the audio processing signal chain, and the SBM100 series is ideal for demanding applications requiring crystal clear recordings, lowest noise data to your AI engine for voice and sound recognition, best-in-class teleconferencing audio, noise-free ANC applications, super-directivity beam forming and many more.

We are excited to welcome Anthony Minervini to the sensiBel team to further strengthen the development and scale-up of optical MEMS microphones. Anthony has been in the MEMS industry for 23 years and for the last 8 years he served as the microphone packaging technology architect for the acoustics group at Apple. In the early 2000’s he created the microphone packaging platform at Knowles, which is the basis of all standard microphone packaging in the industry today. He also developed microphone packaging technology at Invensense (TDK)  and managed the integration of the Analog Devices team after the acquisition.

“I look forward to contributing to the very competent sensiBel team in the scale-up and commercialization of high-performance market disruptive optical MEMS microphones” Anthony states, and continues “being part of such an innovative effort bringing the next generation MEMS microphones to the market is an exhilarating opportunity”

Sverre Dale Moen, CEO, says “We are thrilled to have a MEMS microphone industry expert like Anthony on the team.  Anthony’s experience as a MEMS microphone supplier and as a customer of MEMS microphones is a unique combination that further strengthens our mission to bring high-performance MEMS microphones to the market.”

We are excited to release sensiBel’s very first white paper. We invite all MEMS microphone enthusiasts and audio industry professionals to explore the paper and join us on the journey to reinvent the microphone!

For over two decades, conventional capacitive MEMS microphones have seen incremental improvements in Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) and dynamic range. However, the technology has reached its limits, presenting significant challenges in achieving both a low noise floor and a high clipping point in digital microphones. Piezoelectric MEMS microphone technology promised to surpass capacitive microphones' performance, but to date, has only achieved an SNR of 64 dBA with a limited dynamic range. 

sensiBel has taken a giant leap forward in MEMS microphone innovation and has smashed the limits of SNR and dynamic range of miniature microphones with the SBM100 series optical MEMS microphone. With 80 dBA SNR (14 dBA noise floor), 132 dB dynamic range, 24-bit digital output and with low power consumption, the microphone is the long-awaited solution to electroacoustic challenges in high-performance audio and sound acquisition applications.  

The white paper presents the performance highlights of the SBM100 product series, summarizes the evolution of microphone technology, outlines the operating principle of optical MEMS microphones, and describes the benefits of optical microphones over conventional solutions.

Click here to fill out the form and receive the white paper by email.

We’re happy to announce that Dr. Øyvind Isaksen, CEO of poLight ASA, has been appointed as the Chairman of the Board at sensiBel. Dr. Isaksen has been a board member since September 2021 and his extensive experience in executive leadership and his expertise in the MEMS industry makes him an ideal candidate for this position. 

Dr. Øyvind Isaksen has been serving as the CEO of poLight ASA since August 2014, overseeing the company's strategic growth and development. Prior to his role at poLight, he held several CEO positions, including his tenure at the publicly listed company Q-Free ASA, where he served as CEO for seven years before stepping down in January 2014. 

With a strong background in Applied Physics, Dr. Øyvind Isaksen brings a deep understanding of the technical aspects and intricacies of MEMS (Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems) technology. His experience as an industrial builder, particularly in building and scaling MEMS companies internationally, adds tremendous value to sensiBel's vision and growth strategy. 

Dr. Øyvind Isaksen expressed his enthusiasm for his new role, stating, ”I am honored to join sensiBel as the Chairman of the Board. The company's commitment to redefining the MEMS microphone industry with a true studio-quality MEMS microphone based on optical technology and its dedication to delivering exceptional experiences aligns perfectly with my own passion for pushing technological boundaries. I look forward to working closely with the talented team at sensiBel to shape the future of the MEMS microphone industry.”

The appointment of Dr. Øyvind Isaksen as Chairman of the Board at sensiBel signals an exciting new chapter for our company. With his guidance and industry knowledge, we are poised to accelerate the company’s growth, solidify our market position, and continue to develop the next generation MEMS microphone. 

audioXpress, the leading global audio development & design magazine, features a comprehensive article in their February issue on the MEMS microphone and voice pickup sensors market: https://audioxpress.com/news/audioxpress-february-2023-now-available-what-do-you-want-to-hear

Included in the summary of “Different MEMS Microphone Technologies” is a description of the sensiBel optical MEMS microphone technology;

“Now ranking at the top as the most promising company in the MEMS microphone space is sensiBel, a Norwegian company with patented optical technology that is says is able to offer 80dB SNR, 140dB AOP, and 10Hz low-frequency roll-off”. “The device uses a top port and offers a variety of data interfaces, including I2S, PDM, and TDM. A very impressive set of specifications, for which many in the audio industry have been hoping, breaking the signal-to-noise barrier that would take MEMS technology closer to conventional condenser capsules”.

After several years of development, the sensiBel team has proven that optical technology delivers the differentiated performance as announced. sensiBel is currently sampling the microphone to lead customers who have also verified the performance of the SBM100 product series. “The sensiBel team appreciate the recognition from audioXpress”, says sensiBel CEO Sverre Dale Moen and continues “we are now focused on production line setup and to deliver on our promise to customers”

Joao Martins, Editor-in-chief, audioXpress adds “current and emerging audio and voice applications require new performance levels for MEMS microphones, matching also the relentless pace of innovation in DSP and AI technology. Optical MEMS technology presents the highest potential to match those requirements, and sensiBel is at the forefront of those efforts”.

Breakthrough MEMS microphone performance with 80dBA SNR and 140dB AOP in a small package with digital output.

We are thrilled to showcase the world’s highest performance MEMS microphone at CES 2023.  The microphone is based on patented optical technology and represents a transformational leap forward in MEMS microphone performance compared with conventional MEMS microphone technologies. 

If you are visiting CES, please stop by to see our demo and meet our team. 

When: January 5-8, 2023

Where: Las Vegas, NV, USA

Location:  ALTI VIP Hospitality Suite located at the Venetian in Lido 3101B on the 3rd floor. 

Please email us at sales@sensibel.com to set up an appointment.  

The solution for demanding applications

The microphone is the most fundamental component in the audio processing signal chain, and the SBM100 series is ideal for demanding applications requiring crystal clear recordings, lowest noise data to your AI engine for voice and sound recognition, best-in-class teleconferencing audio, noise-free ANC applications, super-directivity beam forming and many more.

Key benefits 

Norwegian leading financial newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) announces sensiBel as the winner of the 2022 startup of the year award!  This is a prestigious annual award with participants from the entire Norwegian startup community.

The judges of the award committee are made up of successful entrepreneurs, member from academia and venture capital companies. “The sensiBel microphone is a high-tech product with sensor and microchip integrated in one package. sensiBel is well deserving of the award based on the extreme technical complexity of the product”, states Geir Førre to DN. Geir Førre is a serial entrepreneur and one of the members of the award committee.  

Traditionally, MEMS microphones are based on a more than a 100 year old capacitive technology and their performance is limited.  The market is demanding higher performance MEMS microphones, and this is exactly what sensiBel can achieve with their optical technology. This optical technology instantly provided a huge performance upgrade over existing technology and has even more improvements possible in the future. Pilot customers of sensiBel have now measured and verified the breakthrough performance of the optical MEMS microphone, and the company has received their first orders. 

sensiBel CEO Sverre Dale Moen states, ”We are humbled and honored to receive the startup of the year award.  It’s a great testament to the world-class team working tirelessly to bring this complex technology to the market.  We have a differentiated product, very large market and great feedback from customers. The team is very excited about the opportunity ahead of us”

The sensiBel team is proud to receive this award and are eager to continue the journey bringing the differentiated technology to the market with our valued customers.

Link to the article (in Norwegian): https://www.dn.no/arets-nyskapere/her-er-norges-mest-nyskapende-selskaper-fire-ar-etter-oppstarten-gikk-grunderbedriften-en-halv-milliard-i-pluss/2-1-1282442