Syntiant Buys Knowles Consumer MEMS Mic Division For $150m

Syntiant Corp was founded in 2017 and produces purpose-built silicon and hardware-agnostic models to power edge AI speech, audio, sensor and vision applications across a wide range of consumer and industrial uses, from earbuds to automobiles. Today, the company announced the signing signed a definitive agreement to acquire certain assets of Knowles Corporation’s Consumer MEMS Microphones (CMM) business.

Knowles’ CMM division manufactures high performance SiSionic micro-electro-mechanical systems microphones used in voice and audio applications on smartphones, smart speakers and wearables, as well as other market areas such as autos and household appliances.

The acquisition will enable Syntiant to offer its customers a complete turnkey solution for always-on audio and speech applications, combining MEMS microphones with the company’s existing AI capabilities in hardware and machine learning models.

“The real news in this deal is the kind of devices and applications Syntiant will be able to offer in the future now that it controls the entire pipeline of technology,” noted Andrew Bellavia, founder of the hearing care consultancy AuraFuturity and former director in Knowles' Hearing Health Tech division.

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Kurt Busch, CEO at Syntiant has this to say about the deal: “We believe almost every microphone of the future will be AI-enabled, as large language models continue to revolutionize industries by improving natural language understanding and automating complex tasks.

“This acquisition will clearly strengthen our product portfolio, tapping into a multi-billion-dollar MEMS market, at the same time enabling Syntiant to offer comprehensive, end-to-end solutions that integrate sensors [microphones], processors and high-performance machine learning models, uniquely positioning Syntiant as the premier provider for AI-driven interfaces.”

More than 50 million Syntiant Neural Decision Processors and deep-learning models have been deployed around the world, delivering cloud-free intelligence to edge devices with ultra-low-levels of power consumption. The integration of advanced MEMS sensors into Syntiant’s existing hardware-software capabilities will provide the company’s customers with a total edge AI audio solution that simplifies product development and decreases the time it takes to bring new products to market, while remaining scalable, secure and customizable across a wide range of applications.

“Whether in autonomous vehicles, smart home devices, or industrial automation, a significant number of Syntiant NDP deployments will continue to have a microphone, enabling next-generation AI features like voice commands, speech recognition, echo cancellation, background noise suppression, wake word detection and audio event detection,” Busch added. “With this transaction, we also are grateful to be gaining a very talented team with proven technology, world-class multinational operations, and long-term customer relationships serviced around the globe. We look forward to welcoming them to the Syntiant family.”

Syntiant is paying $150 million in cash and stock for the Knowles’ CMM business, which generated revenues of $256 million in FY 2023 and $136 million in the first half of 2024. The financing is being led by Structural Capital and Boardman Bay Capital Management. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

Knowles will now exit the low-margin consumer MEMs market and probably turn its full attention to developing higher end products where the margins are greater.