As part of our Sacramento Inno coverage, the Business Journal for the first time compiled a list of Startups to Watch in the new year. These startups are poised to make big moves, either in growth, funding, technology or development. We're highlighting 13 startups, generally with fewer than 100 employees, about 5 years old or less and that have raised less than $50 million. The group includes a diverse mix of companies throughout the region.
Startup to Watch: Noopl
People with hearing loss tend to have a hard time in crowded places because most hearing aids tend to pick up as much irritating background noise as they do the words from the person in front of them.
Noopl developed a directional hearing aid meant to cancel out irritating background noise. The Sacramento-based company is selling a smartphone accessory that works with an iPhone and Apple AirPods Pro to select the sound from where a user’s head is pointed, and to cancel out all other directional noise.
The company is selling the product direct-to-consumer as an audio device, so it is not considered a medical device. The Noopl 2.0 sells for $249, and it interfaces with a free app that doesn’t come with a subscription. That compares to hearing aids, which can cost thousands of dollars. Noople repurposes the audio and accelerometer capabilities of modern smartphones.
Noopl was co-founded in January 2020 by Steven Verdooner and Kevin Snow. Verdooner is the CEO of Sacramento medical technology company NeuroVision Imaging Inc., and Snow is a software engineer.
Noopl raised $5 million in a seed round from venture investors in January 2020. Noopl CEO Tim Trine worked for 19 years with Starkey Hearing Technologies in Minnesota before moving to San Francisco in 2017 to be chief technology officer for Eargo, a direct-to-consumer medical device company.
