Motion gesture technology developer Pebbles Interfaces has raised $11 million in its second financing round. The investment was led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH, the venture capital company of the Bosch Group, and Giza Venture Capital, who were joined by strategic investors Sandisk and Xiaomi of China. iNetworks continued its investment in the company from the seed round, and Chinese VCs Shunwei and CTQuan completed the round. The company is headquartered in Kfar Saba.
Pebbles Interfaces CEO Emil Alon said, “Our technology revolutionizes the way people interface with devices. The company’s gesture technology enables smartphones, PCs, smart TVs and other devices to be controlled by natural and intuitive human gestures. In line with our vision, to naturally interface with everything, we can now acquire any object as an interface pod - be it your hand, your head, a smartphone, or any other object you can think of."
The company has partnered with leading high-end consumer electronic brands, and deals have also been signed for mass manufacturing of a completely new generation of televisions and gesture-enabled devices. Most of the funds will be directed towards development of new products to be implemented in numerous consumer electronics devices.
Pebbles Interfaces VP Business Development Doron Levit said that the company is also working on a new generation of natural interfaces capable of integrating gesture controllers cross-board. “Since we can now turn any surface or object to a controller, the possibilities are endless: interact with your home appliances, entertainment or communication devices simply by behaving naturally, using your fingers, head or body, yet with no need to touch.”
Pebbles Interfaces CTO Nadav Grossinger added, “So far, the technology we’ve seen in this market was challenging for consumers, with each company creating their own gestures according to the limitations of its technology. We have even heard some companies talk about 'educating' the consumers, but there is no learning curve needed with our technology since every gesture is natural and intuitive. Our technology is precisely about providing high performance gesture control at minimal cost, computing power, and latency.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on August 1, 2013
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