Trigence, an audio technology spinout from Hosei University, took its total funding to more than $20m with a Miyako Capital-led round that featured Innovation and Future Creation.
Trigence Semiconductor, a Japan-based audio system developer Hosei University, has completed a series C round of undisclosed size led by Miyako Capital, a venture capital affiliate of Kyoto University, increasing its total funding to more than $20m.
Innovation and Future Creation, a VC firm affiliated with Tokyo Institute of Technology, also contributed to the round, as did Intel Capital, chipmaker Intel’s corporate venturing arm, and semiconductor technology producer Supreme Electronics as well as undisclosed existing investors.
Spun off from Hosei University in 2006, Trigence has created a digital audio system that is used in electronic devices such as computers, headphones, smart speakers and in-car sound systems.
Intel Capital invested an undisclosed amount in the company in a 2012 deal that represented Trigence’s first external funding. It reportedly secured up to $4.7m from public-private partnership Innovation Network Corporation of Japan (INCJ) two years later.
However, Trigence did not include INCJ in a list of investors disclosed in a statement that did identify coil-winding machine producer Nittoku Engineering and electronics manufacturer TDK Corporation as earlier backers.
Tsunesaburo Sugaya, Managing Director and Partner with MIYAKO Capital, said: “We are extremely pleased to be able to lead Trigence’s series C financing round. The work Trigence has done in this field is innovation at its best.
“We hope that, along with the other investors, we can work to aid them in substantially growing their business to become the dominant player in consumer audio. The company has immense knowledge, not only of digital audio, but uniquely of the whole acoustic system.”
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.
