DSP Concepts, Inc., a developer of embedded digital signal processing audio solutions and specialist in voice UI technologies, announced today that it has raised $10M in Series A funding, led by BMW i Ventures, with participation from Walden International Ventures and prominent angel investor David Tsang.

With smartphones reaching the top of their product life cycle and intelligent assistants like Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri becoming increasingly popular, voice UI is poised to become the next dominant user interface across all industries, from car infotainment systems and consumer electronics, to IoT products and home automation. Realizing the need for faster development and more reliable voice recognition performance, DSP Concepts has developed a series of product offerings powered by its Audio Weaver™ audio processing software. These solutions accelerate time-to-market and achieve maximum performance for any product design at a lower system cost. Partners of DSP Concepts include Amlogic, Cadence Design Systems, Knowles Corporation, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments Inc., and several other leading suppliers of DSP and SoC solutions.

"Consumers have already purchased millions of voice-controlled products, and while they've become aware of the power and convenience of voice UI, they've also experienced the frustrations that occur when voice UI devices don't respond quickly and accurately," said Dr. Paul Beckmann, Chief Technology Officer and founder of DSP Concepts. "Voice UI products powered by our Audio Weaver modular DSP software can be designed and tuned to get the best possible performance from any product or form factor, while saving system costs by taking advantage of available processing power already onboard an SoC or microcontroller."

"Voice UI will play a huge role in the evolution of the car toward becoming an extension of our digital lives. The type of agile development of voice UI capabilities that DSP Concepts enables will become key for companies that want to bring their products to the next level in alignment with this vision," said Christian Noske, a partner at BMW i Ventures.

In an automotive use case, Audio Weaver's framework streamlines the telematics development process. The software provides nearly unlimited audio processing options within a head unit software stack, rather than requiring a separate DSP. Audio Weaver can also take advantage of the multicore architecture of today's powerful infotainment SoCs. When OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers all use Audio Weaver, they get the same tuning and design environment, which makes team interaction much easier and more effective. Suppliers and OEMs can prototype their designs on different processors through emulation, allowing them to determine which processor choice is optimal for their product. Audio Weaver also makes it easy to incorporate third-party algorithms into an automotive electronics system. All of these processes work efficiently and transparently, reducing development risk.

The new Series A funding enables DSP Concepts to transition from their long-established engineering services business to a technology licensing business by making their tested and proven technology available to everyone.

John Whitecar has joined DSP Concepts as Chief Operating Officer to help scale operations. Prior to joining DSP Concepts, Whitecar was responsible for all wireless platforms at Tesla. He has extensive knowledge of the automotive supply chain and the technology ecosystem, having served previously as CTO of infotainment platforms for Texas Instruments and systems architect for Visteon Corporation and Ford Motor Company.

About DSP Concepts

DSP Concepts, Inc. provides embedded audio digital signal processing solutions delivered through its Audio Weaver platform. Audio Weaver's versatility and flexibility allow it to achieve superior performance from any combination of components. DSP Concepts specializes in microphone processing, as well as playback processing, and is the leading supplier to top tier brands in automotive and consumer products. Founded by Dr. Paul Beckmann in 2003, DSP Concepts is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. For more information about DSP Concepts, Inc., please contact us via email: info@dspconcepts.com or web: www.dspconcepts.com or follow us on social media Twitter, Youtube, and DSP Concepts Blog.

About BMW I Ventures

BMW i Ventures, BMW's EUR 500 Mio venture capital fund, invests money and resources in startups in the fields of autonomous driving, digital car and automotive cloud, e-mobility, artificial Intelligence and data, industry 4.0, shared and on-demand mobility, customer digital life, and energy services. The firm has already partnered with innovative companies such as Carbon3D, Chargepoint, JustPark, Life360, Moovit, Nauto, Scoop, Stratim, Turo and Zendrive. BMW i Ventures invests in all stages from seed and incubation to growth companies.

www.bmwiventures.com

About Walden Venture Capital

Walden International is a leading international venture capital firm that has provided investors access to cross-border, IT opportunities with the advantage of an unrivaled Pan Asian network since 1987. The firm funds total over US$2.3 billion in committed capital. Walden International's investments include GoPro Inc., Creative Technology, MindTree, SINA, Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., AutoNavi, Inphi, Silergy Corp., Ambarella, Inc., Ndoors, Com2uS, SundayToz, JobStreet, Brandtology, HungryGoWhere, YFind Technologies, iKang HealthCare Group, Sinosun Technology and Solaredge Technologies, Inc.