“Fauna was a pure marketing project”: Austrian Audio Glasses Fauna Are History – Scoop
It was one of the most ambitious hardware projects by an Austrian scale-up to date: When the Graz-based Usound launched a subsidiary called Fauna in 2019 to bring smart glasses with integrated mini-speakers to market, many were taken aback. The glasses with Usound’s integrated MEMS speakers could be paired via Bluetooth with a smartphone and used not only to play music but also to make hands-free phone calls.
But by early 2026, when the smart glasses topic has picked up considerable momentum again, one must acknowledge: Usound’s Fauna experiment has not borne fruit. The audio glasses have now been auctioned off on the auction platform Aurena—for significantly less money than the 250 euros they were initially offered for. Products from unsuccessful companies often end up on Aurena; the majority of goods come from insolvencies and business liquidations.
“Fauna was a pure marketing project for USound. Its objective was to support the market breakthrough of MEMS speakers and to secure major AR/VR and Audio B2B projects. Both objectives have now been achieved,” said Ferruccio Bottoni, CEO of USound, in a statement to Trending Topics.
Fauna Audio GmbH Already Deleted
On Fauna’s website, it was last communicated that the glasses were sold out, with remaining inventory available at Aurena. A look in the commercial register reveals that the Usound subsidiary Fauna Audio GmbH, which was founded specifically for the audio glasses, no longer exists and has been deleted—specifically, it was merged back with its parent company Usound at the end of 2024.
Usound’s foray into the B2C business, which over the years was equipped with more than 90 million euros in venture capital, is thus over. On the B2B side, however, things are moving forward briskly. For example, the tiny MEMS speakers were recently integrated into the smart glasses of iSEE, which support blind and visually impaired people with real-time navigation and environmental awareness.
