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Thalmic Labs
Thalmic Labs Inc., which developed an armband that lets people control computers with gestures, raised $120 million as the company develops new forms of human-to-machine interaction.
The Series B round was led by a current investor, Intel Capital, along with the Amazon Alexa Fund and Fidelity Investments Canada.
Thalmic Labs, based in Kitchener, Ontario, was started in 2012 by three engineering classmates at the University of Waterloo who were interested in wearable devices.
“We realized all this work was being done on new displays and new versions of computing—things like virtual reality and smart glasses—but no one had figured out how we interact with [them], what the keyboard would look like,” said co-founder and Chief Executive Stephen Lake.
Mr. Lake and co-founders Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant bootstrapped the company for the first six months before they got small grants from the Canadian government and then about $1 million from angel investors, he said.
They ran up their credit cards and tried (and failed) to get student loans, all the while working on prototypes of what would become the Myo armband, which lets people control computer games, drones, light switches and other devices by waving their hands and arms.
Thalmic Labs began shipping the armbands, which are available through Amazon.com
and retail stores, around the end of 2014. The Myo is embedded with sensors that pick up the people’s electrical impulses when they activate muscles. The technology can distinguish the difference between making a fist or tapping a finger, Mr. Lake said.
The company had raised $14.5 million in Series A funding in 2013 after graduating from the Silicon Valley incubator Y Combinator, where Thalmic Labs’ prototypes and videos of Myo sparked intense interest in the armband.
The company hired veterans in manufacturing from Blackberry Ltd.
, whose predecessor company made the Blackberry mobile device, to make sure it could meet demand, according to Mr. Lake.
“Our philosophy early on was that our most important asset was the people on our team,” he said. “It was most important getting the culture right and the people on board.”
Mr. Lake declined to discuss new products from Thalmic Labs.
Amazon Vice President Doug Booms said the Alexa Fund was set up to invest in ways that voice technology could change everyday life and Amazon is excited by Thalmic’s potential. Representatives for Intel Capital weren’t available for comment.
Mr. Lake said the new money will support Thalmic Labs’ expansion to San Francisco and hire people across the company. Thalmic Labs has doubled in size to more than 100 employees in the past year.
The board remains unchanged, with Intel Capital as a board observer and Spark Capital with a board seat. Other investors who participated in this round include Spark, iNovia Capital and current investor First Round Capital.
Corrections & Amplifications:
Fidelity Investments Canada participated in the round. An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated it was Fidelity Canada Asset Management. (Sept. 19, 2016)
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