Spintop Ventures invest in disruptive Norwegian Audio technology company Nomono. Nomono takes audio recording workflow and the final experience of audio to completely new levels. Although Spintop has been active in Norway for a number or years, Nomono is actually the first investment in a company incorporated in Norway.
The Trondheim-based sound recording technology startup Nomono recently closed their first seed round. The target of 20 MNOK was over-subscribed, hitting a total of 25.5 MNOK.
"This gives us a thick enough wallet to continue at full speed, grow our world-class team and bring our first product to market." — Jonas Rinde, CEO, Nomono
The investors
Nomono has piqued the interest of several large ventures, more than doubling the company's value in this seed after the successful pre-seed in 2019 which oversubscribed from 8 MNOK to 10 MNOK.
The list of investors in this seed contains a number of heavy hitters in the Scandinavian venture market. Among them we find Swedish deep tech-experienced VC Spintop Ventures who, through their investment, help create a unique relationship between a Norwegian consumer tech startup and a Swedish VC.
"Spintop has been active in Norway for a number or years, but Nomono is actually the first investment in a company incorporated in Norway. We are very pleased to invest alongside some old friends of Spintop as well as getting to know some new fellow investors" - Finn Persson, Partner, Spintop Ventures
A few words from the investors
We sent out a few questions to the investors to get a sense of why they chose to invest in Nomono and what primarily value they see in the company. Below are excerpts from each investor.
SKYFALL VENTURES
"We love the space Nomono is targeting, namely the high growth market of sound and audio creation. […] The need to efficiently record, process and release great sound is in high demand, and Nomono is addressing this need with their software enabled microphone product line and their post-production application. Also, the team is truly extraordinary with their proven track record of building successful technology companies and their deep domain knowledge when it comes to audio." — Espen Malmo, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Skyfall Ventures
SPINTOP VENTURES
"We are excited to join as an investor in Nomono. The team has true world-class competence, the company rides on strong market trends and the product proposition has a potential to truly disrupt the recording workflow and final experience of audio." — Sami Niemi, Partner, Spintop Ventures
SINTEF VENTURE
"SINTEF has a long history of advanced signal processing and acoustics which has enabled us to support research and successful startups for a long time. When we started working with Audun Solvang [Co-founder, Nomono], we saw a seed of something that can fundamentally change the way we record and process sound in the future. In 3 years time we have moved from some very interesting graphs on a piece of paper to where there's a company, a product and the path forward looks very promising. We at SINTEF Venture are very pleased to have leading nordic VC's join us in this journey." — Inge Hovd Gangås, SINTEF Venture
INVESTINOR
"Nomono is uniquely positioned to streamline the complex and cumbersome audio recording and processing workflow. People want "plug-and-play" solutions without compromising on sound quality, which is exactly what Nomono delivers. We believe they have the perfect mix of product nerdiness and entrepreneurial savviness to get a strong foothold in a rapidly growing international market." — Øystein Wikan, Investinor
HAITOUKIN
"We chose to invest [in Nomono] because they have a proven management who has the right experience to carry out this development, both technically and commercially, to vastly improve the effectiveness of spatial recording. Combined with patents and the backing of SINTEF, they should have a very good foundation for success." — Christian Bøhn, Haitoukin
Nomono wouldn't have made it to this stage without their early financial supporters. SINTEF and FORNY aided during the initial research and development process. Once Nomono launched, Innovasjon Norge stepped in with grants and loans to support Nomono up until the pre-seed.
Roadmap
R&D for both hardware and software is rocketing forward within Nomono's walls as they're approaching the first alpha prototype that will go through extensive testing over several months. A number of pilot customers are lined up to take Nomono's prototype through its paces and experience spatial audio recording as it should be. The immersive sound recordings will further aid in developing Nomono's cloud-based AI that is rumored to benchmark in line with industry-leading sound processing.
Press contacts
Jonas Rinde, CEO JONAS@NOMONO.CO
Inge Hovd Gangås, Chairperson INGE.HOVD.GANGAS@SINTEF.NO