Voice processor firm raises $15 million

The company has also announced two senior executive appointments: Sanjay Adkar as vice president of engineering and Manish Singh as vice president of marketing. Both positions report directly to president and chief executive officer Peter Santos.

Existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Tallwood Venture Capital, Vulcan Capital and VentureTech Alliance participated in the round which is intended to support continued product development and rollout of the company's dynamic noise suppression technology for mobile phones.

Audience voice processor chips for the mobile and telecom marketplace are designed to mimic the functions of the human auditory pathway to optimize voice communication and speech-based applications in noisy environments. The Audience voice processor can distinguish and identify sounds, isolate the primary voice in conversation and cancel out background noise, intermittent sounds (siren, nearby conversation) and echoes, to improve mobile call quality. It also automatically equalizes and adjusts voice volume.

In addition, the technology enhances performance for speech-based mobile applications such as voice search and user verification and is applicable across a range of consumer products where voice needs to be intelligible in noisy environments.

"This latest round of funding provides a strong endorsement of our business achievements which include expansion of our portfolio of advanced voice processors and rapid market growth through partnerships with leading handset manufacturers and mobile service providers," said Santos, in a statement.

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