Eargo

Eargo is an American hearing aid manufacturer based in San Jose, California.[1][2][3] The company's hearing aids were inspired in their design by a fishing fly.[4] Each unit is also rechargeable.[5]

Eargo
Private
Founded2010 (2010)
FoundersFlorent Michel (Inventor)
Raphael Michel (CEO)
Daniel Shen (Co-Founder)
Headquarters
Mountain View, California
,
U.S.
Area served
United States
ProductsHearing aids
WebsiteOfficial Website

History

Eargo was founded in 2010 by Florent Michel,[6] his son Raphael Michel, and Daniel Shen.[2][7] Florent—an ear, nose, and throat surgeon—serves as the designer and inventor[8] while Raphael serves as the company's CEO and Shen as the company's Chief Science & Clinical Officer.[2] Soon after founding the company, they were joined by CTO Bret Hirscher and SVP Engineering Mike Perry, who had worked with Raphael Michel nearly a decade earlier, and Chief Business Officer Matthew Welch. They received seed funding in 2013 from a range of seed funds and angels as well as Maveron.[8] In June 2015, they received $13.6 million in Series A funding from a group of 9 investors, including Maveron, Crosslink Capital, Dolby Family Ventures, and Birchmere Ventures.[1][9][10]

Eargo announced $25m in Series B funding led by New Enterprise Associatesin December 2015,[11] and in October 2017 closed the first tranche of Series C funding intended to raise $45m.[12]

The first hearing devices were made available for order in June 2015.[8] The Eargo Plus was introduced in 2017[13][14] and in 2018, the Eargo Max was introduced.[15]

Products

Eargo hearing aids are certified Class 1 medical devices. Their design is modeled after the standard fishing fly,[6] with a small speaker surrounded by medical-grade silicone fibers (for which the company uses the trademark Flexi Fibers).;[6][16] the fibers allow natural bass sounds to flow more freely into the ear canal,[10][17] so that only treble ranges require amplification.[12]

The devices come in two sizes and are pre-programmed with four standard profiles.[1] To change the setting, wearers double-tap their ear, and an acoustic switch changes the sound profile. The settings for the devices in each ear can be changed independently.[6] Users can also send their personal audiograms to licensed hearing professionals at Eargo who will custom-calibrate the device for that individual's specific needs.[8] The hearing aids can be charged using a portable charging device that is sold with them, and are designed to hold a charge for up to 16 hours. The charging device itself is designed to last up to a week on a single charge.[8][5][10]

The company's founders have stated that these devices are designed with younger people in mind to overcome the stigma surrounding standard, bulky hearing aids.[7][13][18][19][20] The product designer is Ammunition Design Group, which modeled the shape of the charger on a river rock and designed it for ease of use and high visibility of the hearing aids within; the company logo is based on a visualization of a digital recording of Florent Michel saying "Eargo".[13]

gollark: Yes, "fixed".
gollark: Great, I "fixed" it.
gollark: Oh, no, the `nil` metatable thing is not actually to patch any bug, it just introduces new ones.
gollark: The root of it seems to be that one of your tables is nil.
gollark: Well, ish.

References
  1. Magee, Christine (25 June 2015). "With $13 Million From Maveron, Eargo Is The Hearing Aid Of The Future". TechCrunch. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  2. "Eargo". www.crunchbase.com. CrunchBase. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  3. "Eargo Secures $13,000,000 Series A Financing Round". www.Xconomy.com. Xconomy. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  4. Lee, Tyler (26 June 2015). "Eargo Could Be The Hearing Aid Of The Future". UberGizmo. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  5. Sarrell, Matthew D. (4 August 2015). "Eargo Hearing Aids". PC Magazine. Retrieved 3 September 2015.
  6. Parvez, Husain (26 June 2015). "Eargo Is The Heading Aid Of The Future: Backed By $13 Million From Maveron". TechVoize. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  7. "Innovative hearing aid Eargo available for order". Yahoo. 25 June 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  8. Sherman, Michael (25 June 2015). "Maveron-backed Eargo looks to reinvent the hearing aid with rechargeable devices modeled on a fishing fly". GeekWire. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  9. "June 25, 2015 - Funding Round - Series A". www.crunchbase.com. CrunchBase. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  10. Perenson, Melissa (25 June 2015). "Hands-on with Eargo, a New Approach to Hearing Aids". Wearables Insider. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  11. "Eargo Raises $25M in Series B Funding From New Enterprise Associates". Reuters. 2015-12-09. Retrieved 2015-12-10.
  12. Al Idrus, Amirah (2017-10-20). "Eargo pulls in first tranche of series C round worth up to $45M". FierceBiotech.
  13. Budds, Diana (2017-10-13). "Ammunition Designs Slick Hearing Aids For People Who Don't Want Hearing Aids". FastCo.Design.
  14. "Eargo Plus Hearing Aid Review". www.hearreview.com. Retrieved 2018-08-14.
  15. "A Hearing Aid Meant for the Masses: The 50 Best Inventions of 2018". Time. Retrieved 2019-11-18.
  16. Huang, Ruochen (30 July 2015). "Investments For Hearables Surge". TechCrunch. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  17. "Eargo is all about that bass… and that mid-range, and the treble". Medical Plastic News. 30 June 2015. Retrieved 27 July 2015.
  18. Dunhaime-Ross, Arielle (24 August 2015). "Can technology make a hearing-centric world more accessible?". The Verge. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  19. "Eargo Hearing Device". Hearing Tracker. 2015. Retrieved 5 September 2015.
  20. Kim, Jiwon (2017-10-18). "Hearing Aids Reinvented To Make Them More Wearable For All". PSFK.
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