There are 30 million (and counting) Americans who struggle with hearing problems, and plenty of these people are ditching their hearing aid. Why? They are essentially a blanket solution for hearing loss. Hearing aids can pick up extra sounds in different scenarios, sometimes adding nothing but poor quality sound to an already frustrating condition. Also frustrating is the cost. Depending on the sophistication of the device, hearing aids can range from $1,000 to $6,000. Even worse, Medicare and most private insurers don’t cover hearing aids (Consumer Reports). The first Smart Listening System, Soundhawk, aims to change the way the hearing-impaired experience sound, all by helping them hear what matters most.

Multiple investors, including Foxconn, True Ventures, and others have recently helped Soundhawk raise an additional $5.5 million, with $11.2 million in total funding. Soundhawk uses “intuitive consumer technology and breakthrough hearing science designed to help people hear, communicate, and connect”. Because one of the biggest issues with hearing aids involves the poor quality of sound, Soundhawk has a mission to change that by empowering people to hear the world the way they want to.

Soundhawk is an in-ear gadget, doubling as a Bluetooth headset where you can easily customize your very own hearing profile. The Soundhawk Smart Listening System contains three devices and a mobile app. The devices include the earpiece a.k.a. the Scoop, a companion wireless microphone, a charging case. The Scoop, a small, light earpiece wirelessly connects to all other parts of the system. It is about the size of a thimble, weighs 8 grams, and communicates with your smartphone via Bluetooth LE to create your very own noise and volume profile. Additionally, a two-microphone amplifier acts as a headset with the ability to make phone calls and stream audio from your phone.

Rather than a traditional hearing aid with a single volume button, the Soundhawk app allows the user to create audio profiles that can pick up noise or drown out background noise, depending on the environment. The app contains four settings- Indoor, Outdoor, Dining, and Driving. In each scenario, the user can adjust the volume, background noise, and brightness to their comfort all by dragging a finger across the screen. The mic also aids this effort by picking up and transmitting remote sound up to 35 feet away. This eases the stress of not hearing an important detail in a large conference room meeting, or the voice of a friend across the table at a restaurant. These are situational hearing problems that happen to almost everyone, yet there has never been a product built for them until now.



Soundhawk is in solid cahoots with a powerful team of professionals and experts. One of Soundhawk’s investors, Foxconn, has now formed a strategic partnership with Soundhawk to help rapidly scare its business. Foxconn is known as “the world’s largest developer and manufacturer of consumer technology products”. Soundhawk was founded by one of the world’s leading hearing experts, Dr. Rodney Perkins from the California Ear Institute, and is backed by former Apple, HP, and Amazon executives and engineers. Pre-orders for the product began Tuesday, for a limited time offer of $279, with a retail price of $299.