Investment funding for Norwegian spatial audio startup Nomono

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. The round was lead by Skyfall Ventures and Spintop Ventures alongside existing investors like SINTEF Venture and Investinor.

Nomono has piqued the interest of several well-known venture firms, 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.

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 primary values they see in the company. Below are excerpts from each investor.

SKYFALL VENTURES (LEAD SEED INVESTOR)

"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

JOHAN BRAND

"I have been a digital creative and remote worker for 20 years which comes with a lot of challenges. I'm quite a sound nerd and spent a lot of time searching for the optimal setup for creation and meetings. Sound quality is actually more important than video quality in human interactions and storytelling, and I believe Nomono has the chance to crack this market open through their experienced leadership and solid team."

— Johan Brand

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.