Motorola and Sonaptic Limited jointly announced that Motorola has made a strategic minority investment in Sonaptic Limited. This forms part of the second round of investment in one of the leading developers of advanced audio technologies for the mobile device market.
Mobile devices incorporating the Sonaptic 3D Audio Engine deliver a totally new audio experience. The technology creates an immersive, three-dimensional sound environment that can be experienced using the embedded speakers in portable devices or by using standard headphones. The technology is suited to multiple applications including games, user interface enhancement, music and ringtones. Sonaptic's technology is portable and has been especially crafted for the low power, low resource requirements of the mobile device environment. It is ideally suited for use on mobile phones, personal video and music players, PDAs and gaming platforms.
“Our decision to invest in Sonaptic was motivated by its world class technology and the ability to enhance the mobile end user experience," said John O’Donohue, managing director of Motorola Ventures EMEA. “We continue to invest in technology companies which complement Motorola’s Seamless Mobility vision of providing a transparent mobile experience across all user environments. We also believe that Sonaptic will play a major role in the next generation of mobile handsets."
David Monteith, CEO and joint founder of Sonaptic, said: "We are delighted to have completed this second financing round, which will enable us to build on a successful year of very rapid development and sales achievement." Mr Monteith continued, “We have already seen the Sonaptic technology adopted for next generation mobile phones in Japan. Motorola’s decision to invest in Sonaptic will accelerate dramatically the adoption of high quality 3D audio in the world’s other leading geographic markets."
“It's good to see a major player such as Motorola building up its investment in European technology ventures," said Martin Garner, Director of Wireless Intelligence, Ovum. “It is useful for Motorola in looking to give its products an edge and in working towards its vision of Seamless Mobility. Great news for European technology start-ups."
In addition to Motorola, the round included further investment from Pentech Ventures, and new investment from ROHM Inc., the leading Japanese semiconductor component manufacturer.
About Sonaptic
Sonaptic Limited was founded in 2003 to create effective and efficient audio technologies for next-generation mobile devices. Sonaptic technology is based on more than 12 years of research by the company's founders, initially at EMI Music's Research Laboratories in the 1990s. With headquarters in High Wycombe, UK, and offices in Tokyo, Seoul and Austin, Texas, Sonaptic has signed customer agreements that include the device manufacturers NEC, Fujitsu and Mitsubishi and semiconductor vendors ROHM and Yamaha. To learn more about Sonaptic, please visit the company's website at www.sonaptic.com
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