London music startup Roli is ready to expand globally as they announce $12.8m in investment.
Their flagship-product the Seaboard GRAND keyboard has been met with unexpectedly strong demand, creating waiting lists of up to a year. The investment will go towards scaling up production.
The financing is led by Balderton Capital. Other investors include FirstMark Capital and Index Ventures, as well as strategic investor Universal Music.
As part of the financing, Daniel Waterhouse from Balderton and Amish Jani from FirstMark join the board of directors.
The Seaboard GRAND
The Seaboard GRAND marks a re-imagining of a traditional keyboard.
It has won multiple awards, including the SXSW Music Accelerator in 2013, and more recently the product category of the Design Museum’s 2014 Design of the Year Award.
Having seen it in person, words don’t quite do it justice. Check out the video below to have a peek at the product.
The best is yet to come
The innovation isn’t over yet for ROLI.
ROLI founder and CEO, Roland Lamb, says:
The Seaboard is just the first in a line of breakthrough music hardware and software products, and the investment will speed development of core platform products like our sound engine Equator.
Ultimately, ROLI’s mission is to create new interfaces that expand the bandwidth of interaction between people and technology, and this financing is a major step towards realising that goal.