Music technology company ROLI has raised $3.7m in Series A investment as its flagship product the Seaboard GRAND gains momentum.
The London-based company announced a $12.8m Series A round in May and hopes the new round, which includes Hong Kong-based Horizons Ventures, will help get a foothold in the Asian market.
The round also included previous investors Balderton Capital, FirstMark Capital, Index Ventures, and Universal Music Group.
Revolutionary hardware
The Seaboard is the company’s first product, focused on ROLI’s mantra of increasing “the bandwidth of interaction between people and technology”.
It has been dubbed the piano of the future and has been ordered from over 34 different countries.
Founded in 2009 by Roland Lamb, the company has grown from three staff to over 50, based in London, New York and the Far East.
It is a positive sign for the Seaboard that CEO Lamb was honoured for his contribution to the design world with the Emerging Talent Medal at London Design Week.
Famous endorsements
The Seaboard GRAND has been used by a number of high-profile artists. including Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman and Dream Theater’s Grammy-nominated keyboard virtuoso Jordan Rudess.
Rudess described playing the keyboard as “the most important musical life-changing event since my first synthesizer”.
Alongside an event announcing the May investment, Rudess played a set with other musicians on three Seaboards at the iconic Abbey Road Studios. You can see the video below.