News - Article
Elevear Acquired by Qualcomm
In November, Elevear, a pioneer in AI-powered adaptive active noise cancellation (ANC), was acquired by Qualcomm.
Qualcomm is a global leader in communications and semiconductor technology headquartered in San Diego. Elevear, a startup from the Institute of Communication Systems (IKS) at RWTH Aachen University, was founded 4.5 years ago by Dr.-Ing. Stefan Liebich, Dr.-Ing. Johannes Fabry, Raphael Brandis, and Elfed Howells. Both Stefan Liebich and Johannes Fabry completed their PhDs at IKS, and Raphael Brandis had already been part of the team through his bachelor’s and master’s theses. Elfed Howells brought in his many years of experience as a manager at Dolby, contributing expertise in commercialization. Elevear’s goal was to take the sound quality of hearables to the next level through personalized and immersive audio experiences.
Thanks to a strong focus on innovative research approaches, Elevear has achieved numerous successes and received various awards:
- Sep 2016 – Patent application for active suppression of the occlusion effect
- Apr 2019 – RWTH Innovation Award for the project Enhanced Audio Reality (EAR): Digitally Opening the Ear for Headsets and Hearing Aids
- Dez 2019 – RWTH Innovation Sprint Program to support proof-of-concept development
- Apr 2020 – RWTH Ideation Program to develop the EXIST grant application
- Dez 2020 – Start of the EXIST Founder Grant with support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and the European Social Fund
- Jan 2021 – RWTH Incubation Program – accelerator for deep tech startups in Europe (focus on go-to-market, scaling, and fundraising)
- Feb 2021 – Founding of Elevear GmbH
- Nov 2021 – Licensing agreement between RWTH Aachen University / Institute of Communication Systems and Elevear for Active Occlusion Cancellation
- Dez 2021 – NRW.Startup Akut Convertible Loan Investment
- May 2022 – Winner of the ICASSP Pitch Competition
- Nov 2022 – Awarded the RWTH Spin-off Award
- Mar 2023 – Licensing agreement between RWTH Aachen University / Institute of Communication Systems and Elevear for Binaural Cue Adaptation
- Jun 2023 – Seed investment from Tech Vision Fund
- Nov 2025 – Acquisition by Qualcomm
With the Elevear team, built around the founders, a new Qualcomm site is being established in Aachen— a strategic move by Qualcomm to expand its audio portfolio toward personalized, intelligent sound experiences through AI-focused solutions and to further develop new innovations.
We’re excited about the future developments and innovations that will emerge from this exciting partnership!
