Pebbles Interfaces, an Israeli developer of 3D gesture-based interaction with digital devices, has raised $11m in a second round of financing led by Robert Bosch Venture Capital, the corporate venturing unit of Germany-based industrial group Robert Bosch, and by Giza Venture Capital. The financing was joined by SanDisk Ventures, the strategic investment arm of US-based flash memory storage maker SanDisk Corporation, and Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, as well as venture capital firms iNetworks, a seed round investor, and Chinese firms Shunwei and CTQuan.
Sumit Sadana, executive vice president and chief strategy officer, SanDisk, said: “The technology being developed by Pebbles Interfaces has the potential to become a key element in how people interact with their digital devices in the future. We believe that human gestures and human interaction have the potential to unleash exciting new applications and product categories, which in turn, will drive increased demand for flash memory solutions.”
Emil Alon, chief executive officer, Pebbles Interfaces, said: “We are extremely happy to have SanDisk as an investor bringing us their vast knowledge of OEM markets, next generation devices and intellectual property strategies. In line with our vision to naturally interact with everything, our gesture technology enables smartphones, PCs, smart TVs and other devices to be controlled by natural and intuitive human gestures. We believe our technology will revolutionize the way people interface with devices.”