DTU-owned PreSeed Ventures joined Bose Ventures in occupational voice guidance technology developer Whispr’s round, which will help the startup double its headcount.
Whispr, a Denmark-based developer of voice guidance technology for frontline workers, has secured $750,000 in pre-seed funding from a consortium featuring PreSeed Ventures, the VC firm and incubator owned by Technical University of Denmark (DTU).
The round, led by VC fund Seedcamp, also featured audio product supplier Bose’s strategic investment arm, Bose Ventures through its AR Fund, along with venture fund Futuristic.vc.
Bose Ventures’ involvement marks its first commitment to a company outside the US.
Founded in 2018, Whispr is preparing to launch a voice guidance app that enables front-line workers such as builders, aircraft inspectors and cleaners to receive on-job instructions and guidance via an earpiece.
The technology, based on a combination of natural language processing and artificial intelligence, is supposed to ease the learning curve for new employees and supplant analogue compliance tools such as paper checklists.
Whispr will action the funding to double its headcount across its offices in Copenhagen and Dublin as it targets business development. The company is due to launch a pilot with an unspecified facilities services client in April 2019 and claims to have secured interest from aviation, facilities management and hospitality businesses.
Steve Romine, managing partner of Bose Ventures, told GUV: “Whispr is a great example of an ‘audio-first’ application that can leverage Bose’s new audio augmented reality (AR) platform. We made this investment from our AR fund.
“We also like the use of audio and voice as the prime mode of receiving and delivering information in the workplace and industrial setting. Much of our investments in this space to date have been in the consumer space, and Whispr is our first investment in a business-to-business audio-first app.”
– Feature image courtesy of Whispr
