AcoSound Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Advance Professional-Grade Hearing Aids

Editor’s Note: This article is republished from 36Kr, authored by Lan Shiyi. VCBeat has been authorized to republish it.

Recently, VCBeat learned that ACOSOUND, a hearing aid manufacturer based in Hangzhou, has announced the completion of its tens-of-millions-yuan Series A financing round, led by Chenyi Investment. The funds raised will be allocated to research and development as well as marketing efforts.

In its released World Report on Hearing, the World Health Organization (WHO) revealed that one in five people worldwide currently suffers from hearing loss. Hearing impairment affects over 1.5 billion people globally, among whom 430 million have moderate or greater degrees of hearing loss. The global hearing aid market generates annual sales of $16 billion and has already produced several industry giants. WS, Starkey, Resound, Oticon, and Sonova are collectively recognized as the top five hearing aid brands worldwide, accounting for more than 95% of the global market share.

In the Chinese market, hearing aids have long been dominated by imports. Furthermore, due to prevalent issues such as outdated product technology and insufficient market education, the hearing aid adoption rate among China’s hearing-impaired population remains below 5%. The convergence of these factors endows this niche industry with significant growth potential, driven by import substitution and substantial unmet demand.

ACOSOUND was established in 2011. In its early startup phase, the company initially focused on developing algorithms for hearing aids. It began manufacturing its own hardware in 2013, and in 2014, ACOSOUND launched its first invisible hearing aid, the Ruby. The company has been profitable since 2018.

Over the past three years, ACOSOUND’s professional-grade hearing aids have achieved an average annual shipment volume of tens of thousands of units, with an average ex-factory price in the range of RMB 1,000. The primary sales channel is offline distribution.

ACOSOUND currently has a team of approximately 70 employees, primarily with R&D backgrounds. Dr. Li Peng, the founder, holds a Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from Zhejiang University and has long been engaged in research on medical acoustic devices. Co-founder Yao Xiuping has over ten years of experience in international trade of medical devices.

At the product market access level, ACOSOUND has obtained U.S. FDA clearance and EU CE marking, holding three Class II medical device registration certificates. Furthermore, ACOSOUND has undertaken projects under the National Key R&D Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The hearing aid industry’s product offerings are broadly categorized into two types. The first comprises standard hearing aids, which resemble consumer electronics, with average transaction values ranging from hundreds of yuan; these products dominate sales on e-commerce platforms. The second category consists of medical-grade professional hearing aids, which require patients to visit clinics for audiometric testing and fitting, with average transaction values reaching several thousand yuan. The advantages and disadvantages of each type are distinct: the former is affordable and easily accessible but delivers suboptimal performance and may even damage patients’ residual hearing; the latter necessitates in-person audiometric evaluation and professional fitting at specialized offline clinics, offering superior outcomes but at a significantly higher cost.

To address this pain point, Li Peng told 36Kr that ACOSOUND has newly launched the Lingxi series of hearing aids, equipped with remote fitting technology. Users can receive remote debugging and care via an online app. Audiologists can adjust users’ hearing aids in real time through computer-based fitting software, conduct real-ear measurement, and develop personalized hearing solutions, allowing users to complete the entire fitting process without leaving home. The self-testing feature enables users to monitor changes in their hearing status in real time, making hearing assistance more timely and efficient. In the mid-to-high-end hearing aid segment, ACOSOUND’s products deliver superior noise reduction and feedback suppression, improve speech recognition rates after compression, and incorporate algorithmic innovations such as binaural speech processing synthesis and directional synthesis based on varying signal-to-noise ratios in complex environments.

In recent years, as China’s population aging has intensified, the hearing aid market—a sector driven by essential demand—has consistently attracted capital attention, with several significant financing rounds quietly completed in the hearing assistance device space. Compared to some competitors, ACOSOUND’s advantage lies in being one of the few companies in the industry that has truly achieved independent algorithm development, along with the commercialization of its own chips and hearing aids.