Thalmic Labs, makers of the revolutionary wearable gesture control device MYO, today announced the closing of a $14.5 million Series A financing round led by Spark Capital and Intel Capital.

"The funding will be used to fuel continued growth, further product development of MYO, and develop future products and technologies," said Stephen Lake, CEO and co-founder of Thalmic Labs. "This new investment will help us realize our vision of a new era of computing, where the lines between humans and digital technology become increasingly blurred."

Since announcing MYO, Thalmic Labs has seen rapid traction from technology enthusiasts around the world -- in less than three months, preorders have been received for over 30,000 units from customers in 138 countries. MYO allows users to control computers, smartphones and other digital devices with simple hand gestures.

"We are at the beginning of a revolution in how we interface with computers, and the team at Thalmic Labs has made some truly disruptive breakthroughs," said Nabeel Hyatt of Spark Capital, who will be joining the Thalmic Labs board of directors with this financing. "We're excited not just for what they are building, but to see the new ecosystem of wearable computing that they are going to help push forward."

As part of the investment from Intel Capital, Thalmic Labs will gain access to Intel's manufacturing and technology expertise to help the company scale production and enhance next generation products. "User interfaces continue to evolve and make digital computing devices more invaluable in our day-to-day lives," said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. "Thalmic Labs, with its new innovation in gesture and wearable technology, is making possible entirely new capabilities and consumer experiences on ultrabooks and tablets."

Additional participants in the financing round include venture capital firms Formation 8, First Round Capital and FundersClub, along with the following individual investors: Paul Graham, Marc Benioff, Geoff Ralston, Sam Altman, Garry Tan, Fritz Lanman, Hank Vigil, Tom Wagner, Alex Bard, Michael Litt and Daniel Debow.

Prior to this financing, Lake and his co-founders, University of Waterloo classmates Aaron Grant and Matthew Bailey, had previously announced $1 million in seed funding raised in 2012. This Series A funding of $14.5 million is the largest round of funding that any post-Y Combinator company has received to date.

MYO is available for pre-order at http://www.thalmic.com/myo for $149.00. Thalmic Labs started taking pre-orders for MYO in February 2013 with the launch of this video, which has received over 2.6 million views to date: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWu9TFJjHaM

About Thalmic Labs

Thalmic Labs is a North American based company headquartered in Waterloo. The company is the developer of exciting, new technologies in the area of human-computer interaction. Its first product, the MYO armband, measures electrical activity in muscles to wirelessly control computers, phones and other digital technologies, resulting in seamless interaction between humans and devices.

Thalmic Labs was founded in 2012 by three graduates of the University of Waterloo's mechatronics engineering program (Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey, Aaron Grant), and has since grown to a world-leading team of scientists, engineers and designers committed to building the future of wearable technology. The company was part of Y Combinator's winter 2013 cohort, and launched from the University of Waterloo's Velocity program.

About Spark Capital

Spark Capital is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs seeking to build disruptive, world-changing companies. Founded in 2005, the firm manages approximately $1,500,000,000 across four funds. Headquartered in Boston, Spark maintains an office in New York and invests across the globe. The firm focuses on the following key categories: advertising & monetization, commerce & services, content & media, hardware & infrastructure, mobile and social. Spark Capital has backed notable companies including Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, AdMeld, OMGPOP, Warby Parker and Wayfair. For more information, visit http://www.sparkcapital.com.

About Intel Capital

Intel Capital, Intel's global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, health, consumer internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$10.8 billion in over 1,284 companies in 54 countries. In that timeframe, 202 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 320 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2012, Intel Capital invested US$352 million in 150 investments with approximately 57 percent of funds invested outside North America. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @intelcapital.