Seth Catalli

When most people hear "solid-state," they think storage. But in Santa Clara, xMEMS Labs just gave that term new resonance, literally. The company just raised $21M in Series D funding led by Boardman Bay Capital Management, with Cloudview Capital, CDIB-TEN Capital, Harbinger Ventures, Susquehanna Asia Venture Capital, and other strategic investors tuning in. This isn't another round of capital, it's an #amplifier for a company turning silicon into a new language of #sound and #cooling for the AI era. Founded in 2018 by Joseph Jiang and Jemm Liang, xMEMS spun out of piezoelectric R&D at TSMC and turned what was once wafer-level theory into commercial hardware. Joseph Jiang, a veteran of Knowles, Fortemedia, and InvenSense, leads with precision and swagger, while Jemm Liang, who built Ultrachip from the ground up, drives the engineering with surgical focus. Co-Founder & CLO Wei-Fu Hsu, the former MediaTek exec and IP expert, ensures xMEMS' innovation is as protected as it is disruptive. Their play? A monolithic MEMS platform that transforms voltage into vibration, silicon into sound. Unlike legacy coil speakers and fans, xMEMS tech doesn't move parts, it moves markets. Over 500K MEMS speakers shipped in 1H'24, backed by >250 global patents. The Cypress & Sycamore lines redefine what "small" can do: 1mm-thin, full-range, and capable of sub-bass response once thought impossible in earbuds. Their XMC-2400 µCooling chip, 1mm-thin, fan-on-a-chip, inaudible, moves 39cc/sec of air at just 30mW. That's not cooling, that's choreography at a molecular level. Dr. Chester Hwang, named CTO on Oct 15, 2025, joins to push that curve further. Alongside veterans Mike Housholder (VP Marketing & Biz Dev), Jim Wargnier (VP N.A. & EU Sales), James Lee (VP & Korea GM), Steven P. Bentley (VP Sales), and Martin Lim (VP MEMS Tech), xMEMS is scaling at semiconductor speed. They're already in BleeqUp's AI sports glasses and teamed with Dongguan Rayking Electronics for TWS modules. When OEMs talk "next-gen," they're talking xMEMS-level integration. For investors like Boardman Bay's Will Graves, this isn't just sound engineering, it's signal intelligence. With AI pushing devices thinner, faster, and hotter, xMEMS' piezoMEMS platform sits at the intersection of #acoustics and #thermals, where every millimeter matters. Backing them is a bet that the next wave of #sensorytech won't just compute, it'll feel alive. So what's next? Scaling production, expanding capacity, and embedding xMEMS' silicon pulse into everything from earbuds to AI #datacenters. In a world chasing speed, silence, and fidelity, xMEMS isn't following the beat, they're building the frequency the future will hum to. #Startups #StartupFunding #VentureCapital #SeriesD #AI #Sound #SoundEngineering #Semiconductors #Data #DataDriven #Technology #Innovation #TechEcosystem #StartupEcosystem #Hiring #TechHiring If software engineering peace of mind is what you crave, Vention is your zen.

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Educators are eager to hear from industry about how to address the engineering skills gap. Is your business joining the conversation? For Dean Ian Williamson of the University of California, Irvine’s (UCI) Paul Merage School of Business, industry and academia need to do more than partner together: They need to co-design the curriculum. “We have expertise around how to create learning environments. However, we’re not always clear on what exactly we should be training, and we may not always have access to the latest tools either." That’s why Siemens and the UCI School of Business have worked together to offer students the opportunity to complete consulting projects exploring commercialization of the digital twin. “Our students get to see the cutting-edge opportunities associated with virtual reality, but they also are doing it in a way that is similar to what they would do in their workplace.” Read the blog for more of Dean Williamson’s exciting proposals for addressing the engineering skills gap: https://sie.ag/7Qa22T #Academic

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Bay Area friends — this is one I’m personally excited about. Telle Whitney will be speaking @UC Berkeley on March 5 at 3:00 PM about her new book on "Rebooting Tech Culture". I’ve long admired Telle’s leadership and impact on our industry. As former CEO of the Anita Borg Institute and a driving force behind the Grace Hopper Celebration, she has helped shape the conversation around inclusion, leadership, and building a healthier tech culture for decades. She’s truly been a stalwart in advancing women in technology and strengthening our ecosystem overall. She’ll be in conversation with John Wawrzynek, Chair of Berkeley’s Computer Science Department, alongside the Berkeley Society of Women Engineers. If you’re in the Bay Area and care about the future of tech culture, I highly encourage you to attend. Event details: https://lnkd.in/gn4nAnFY #TechLeadership #RebootTechCulture #WomenInTech #GraceHopper #TechCulture #Leadership #UCBerkeley #BayAreaEvents #SWE

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3Sixty Insights just published a strong new piece from Dylan Teggart on California labor laws, and it cuts through a lot of the noise we regularly hear in analyst and vendor conversations. California often gets painted as “impossible to operate in,” but Dylan breaks down where that perception is valid, where it’s overstated, and why the state’s regulatory environment is becoming an increasingly important benchmark for HR, compliance, and operational strategy. If your organization touches the California workforce in any way, this analysis is well worth the read. Dylan does a great job framing the realities, the risks, and the strategic upside companies often overlook. Proud of the work coming out of our team. https://lnkd.in/ex-x3skv

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GTM success isn’t just about what you launch—it’s how your org plans and aligns before anything goes live. This month, Legacy members are opening up about how they run GTM strategy sessions: • Who’s in the room • What cadence works • What frameworks drive clarity • How they keep alignment from falling apart post-meeting No fluff. Just real operating models from senior leaders responsible for go-to-market results. If you’re looking for peers who actually share what works—Legacy might be the community for you. Learn more and request to join: https://hubs.ly/Q03vtwBm0 #GTMLeadership #LegacyExecutiveClub #CrossFunctionalAlignment #ExecutiveStrategy #RevenueLeadership #LeadershipCommunity

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There are two types of leaders right now: 1️⃣ Using AI to automate tasks 2️⃣ Using AI as a thought partner to get smarter, faster One scales output. The other scales you. Stevie Case, CRO, Vanta on how leaders can thrive with AI by doing both 👇 https://bit.ly/4sEzPj8

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Aprio Expands in Pacific Northwest, Uniting Two Leading Oregon Firms - Delap LLP and ... https://lnkd.in/ewd45ttB #technology #IT #managedIT #MSP ARCOA

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