retail stores, page-360

This month’s letter to shareholders by Justin Miller, the CEO of Nuheara, said: “the recent passing of the Over The Counter (OTC) Hearing Aid Act of 2017, represents an exciting opportunity for Nuheara to drive deeper into a market of 40 million people in the US who are hearing-challenged”.
“Nuheara IQ buds are wireless earphones/earbuds which also have advanced hearing aid technology in them. This allows you to filter out background noise, enhance nearby speech and also listen to music, podcasts etc. Basically its hearing augmentation (mixing real world sound with media sound). The IQbuds are designed by a team of science and engineering professors and PhDs led by 2 experienced audio tech entrepreneurs.
“A company called Doppler Labs tried to copy the IQ buds and that resulted in an inferior product and the company going out of business 2 weeks ago after retailers dropped them and they ran out of cash. They spent $60 million in the same time Nuheara only raised 20 million and still have 9 million in the bank which all means the management is great and it’s a very difficult product to replicate (no one else has been able to do it). The IQbuds launched at the consumer electronics show in Las Vegas in January where they won some awards.
“They have also won many other awards throughout the year and are on track to be in 1800 stores worldwide by the end of the year including 100+ best buy stores in the US, Dickson’s in the UK etc. Next CES in January they will launch their 2nd and maybe 3rd product based on their advanced audio processing technology, one of these will be a low end product and one will be a high end product aimed at the new over the counter hearing aid act which was signed a few months ago in the USA. The size of the market in the US for mild hearing loss is over 30 million people”.
Outlook for sales looks good.