Qualtre, Inc., the leading innovator of Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) silicon MEMS inertial sensors, today announced $9 million in funding from two strategic partners, including Alps Electric, along with current investors, Matrix Partners and Pilot House Ventures. Qualtre will use these funds to expand sales and marketing, scale operations, and extend product development as the company supports new customers and additional applications.

'Qualtre launched two BAW MEMS gyroscopes in 2014 with strong customer acceptance,' commented Edgar Masri, President and CEO of Qualtre. 'These robust gyros offer higher accuracy with superior shock and vibration immunity at competitive price points. This makes them ideal for the challenging demands and harsh environments of industrial and high-performance consumer applications, such as inertial navigation, platform stabilization, robotics, unmanned vehicles, sports measurement, medical wearables, and the Internet of Things.'

'Alps Electric and Qualtre have forged a strong partnership because our core competencies complement each other so well,' said Yasuo Sasao, Director of Alps Electric's Components Business. 'Whereas Alps Electric's strong sensor portfolio benefits from Qualtre's superior inertial MEMS technology and performance, Qualtre is able to benefit from Alps Electric's manufacturing efficiencies, to support high production volumes at attractive price points, and ability to access a broad customer base. We've been extremely impressed by the initial response to Qualtre's best-in-class products and are looking forward to our continued work together to provide outstanding experiences for our new and existing customers.'

Previous funding rounds were used to develop Qualtre's proprietary Bulk Acoustic Wave (BAW) MEMS sensor designs and its scalable HARPSS™ process technology. This versatile platform technology, in conjunction with the company's skilled engineering team, was instrumental in the development of highly differentiated 3-axis and 1-axis BAW MEMS gyros, which are being supplied to leading customers. For product information or to order samples, please visit the Qualtre website.

Qualtre was selected by EETimes in 2014 as one of the top ten MEMS/Analog startups and for their 'Silicon 60: Hot Startups to Watch' list.

About Qualtre, Inc.

Qualtre is leading the commercialization of highly differentiated, Bulk Acoustic Wave MEMS motion sensors for consumer, industrial and automotive applications. The robustness of its patented BAW sensor design and the cost/size scalability of its HARPSS process technology enable best-in-class environmental tolerance and superior price/performance. Learn more by visiting www.qualtre.com.

About Alps Electric Co., Ltd.

Alps Electric (Tokyo:6770) is a leading global manufacturer of high-quality electronic components for mobile devices, home electronics, vehicles and industrial equipment. With the philosophy of 'Perfecting the Art of Electric,' Alps Electric supplies over 40,000 different components to about 2,000 companies all over the world. For more information, visit http://www.alps.com.