Thalmic Labs' Myo armband.
Thalmic Labs’ Myo armband.

Thalmic Labs, a six-year-old wearable technology company based out of Ontario, Canada, announced $120 million in Series B funding today.

The Amazon Alexa Fund, Intel Capital, and Fidelity Investments Canada led the round. Additional participants include Spark Capital, First Round Capital, and iNovia.

Thalmic Labs is the maker of the Myo gesture-controlled armband, a wearable with sophisticated sensor technology. The Myo has a number of applications, from medicine, to education, to entertainment. The company employs over 100 at its headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario.

The company’s high-tech armband is used by surgeons in Spain to navigate medical slides while performing surgery, and researchers at Arizona State University are using Myo armbands to translate American Sign Language.

Here’s a closer look at the Myo — described by the company as an armband that reads the electrical activity of your muscles to control technology with gestures and motion, hands-free —in action:

Thalmic Labs plans to use the cash infusion to bring more products to market and expand its team, co-founder Stephen Lake said in a Medium post.

Lake was vague about what those new products might be, but the investors in the Series B round may offer a clue.

Participation from Amazon’s $100 million Alexa Fund suggests Thalmic Labs is developing a product with voice technology or adding those capabilities to its Myo armband.

“This financing marks an exciting milestone for us, however, it’s just one step on a long journey ahead of us,” said Lake, borrowing a line from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ playbook. “Today is still day one.”

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