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Venture Capital News: BeBop Sensors Inks $10M Series A Financing

2018-04-19
BERKELEY, CA, BeBop Sensors, the world leader in smart fabric sensors, announced the close of its $10 Million+ Series A funding.
The round was led by San Francisco-based Bullpen Capital, a leader in post-seed funding. With millions of sensors in daily use, BeBop Sensors designs, manufactures, and delivers smart fabric sensors to Fortune 500 companies in the Health, Automotive, IoT, and AR/VR markets. The funding will help BeBop aggressively accelerate product development and market penetration.

Winner of the Frost & Sullivan Innovation Award and Gartner Cool Vendors Awards, BeBop Sensors' innovative technology products include the Forte Data Glove, the first fully featured data glove with sensors and haptics priced for the consumer market; the Sensor Helmet, first to provide location-specific impact information; Multi Sensor Insole that measures the changing forces on the bottom of the foot; Automotive Occupant Classification System embedded car seat sensors with intelligent car occupant sensing technology for safer airbag deployment; Smart Foot Mat, a high resolution sensor platform that accurately measures a person's balance and detect anomalies in orthotic measurement that traditional methods are unable to; and Fabric Track Pad, an input device that can be conformed to a car's interior for extreme accuracy to recognize taps, gestures, and swipes for unique applications; and many more ground-breaking flexible sensor technologies. Unlike other fabric sensors, BeBop's sensors measure physicality, sensing pressure, XYZ location, bend, motion, rotation, angle, and torsion, for precise analysis of data.

"We believe BeBop to have fundamental technology that will be as important to AI and humans as cameras and microphones. Computers need to feel people, and fabric is already deployed in clothing, furniture and interiors. People are comfortable with it. The perfect place for physical sensors," said Eric Wiesen, Managing Partner, Bullpen Capital.

Wearable Market Predicted to Grow Rapidly, Reaching $5 Billion by 2027

"We see the market for sensors in wearables including gloves for VR, automotive and gaming applications to grow rapidly, reaching $5B by 2027," said Raghu Das, CEO of IDTechEx, independent market research firm for emerging technologies. "This market is also transitioning from rigid sensors such as FSRs to fabric-like, flexible, stretchable sensors. BeBop Sensors is uniquely positioned to take advantage of this transition and rapid growth in the market."

"Flexible fabric sensors have emerged as one of the most sought-after sensors in markets that affect consumers every day, including automotive, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), wearables, health, sports, and remote sensing," said Keith McMillen, Founder & CEO, BeBop Sensors in Sensors Magazine. "I am pleased to have Bullpen Capital with proven tech vision backing BeBop. When you are first in on a major tech innovation, it takes partners that can share that vision to succeed," concluded McMillen.

Bullpen Capital is a leader in post-seed funding with over 70 companies in markets from fantasy sports to data center equipment. A venture fund with a differentiated strategy, Bullpen invests after the product has found a niche in the marketplace. Bullpen selects its companies based on three criteria: evidence of a product and market that is visible in operating data; sight lines to a milestone that inflects the company's value; and a strong syndicate of existing seed investors. Bullpen helps these market leaders accelerate operating performance at this critical time, acting with greater speed than most other venture investors to help companies come to market quickly.

For more info on BeBop Sensors' technology and funding, contact BeBop Sensors at contact@bebopsensors.com, website: http://www.bebopsensors.com.

About BeBop Sensors

BeBop Sensors uses smart fabrics to create elegant sensor solutions for OEMs. Where things or people interact, BeBop Sensors comprehends force, location, size, weight, bend, twist and presence across any size, resolution and geometry. BeBop's technology is robust and proven with over two million sensors in daily use. Based in Berkeley, California, BeBop Sensors makes things knowable for product designers and visionaries. For more information and demonstrations, see the BeBop Sensors website: www.bebopsensors.com.

About Bullpen Capital

Bullpen Capital's $85 million venture fund is an early-stage, post-seed venture fund investing in companies that have been funded by super-angels and institutional seed funds. Since 2010, Bullpen has invested in over 70 companies in markets ranging from fantasy sports to data center equipment. Bullpen's round is often the critical step between a product-centric seed round and a much larger "super-sized" venture round. This smaller round provides the founding team more ownership and control of their destiny. For more information, see the website: http://bullpencap.com/.
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