Our Investment in Mixhalo

We are pleased to announce Foundry Group’s investment in Mixhalo. We led the $10.7m Series A equity financing the company is announcing today. Based in San Francisco, Mixhalo provides a direct-from-the soundboard, totally immersive in-ear monitor experience to audiences at a venue via a smartphone app. This is the audio that professional musicians experience from the stage. 

Their audio tech platform provides “audio augmented reality”: venue-curated, high-quality, low-latency audio feeds direct to the audience. Aside from live music / concert applications, Mixhalo can transform an audience’s experience at sporting events, festivals, trade shows, conferences, museums, and more. Imagine choosing among multiple play-by-play commentaries at a live sporting event, listening in on a presentation from the next room at conference, tuning in to the band at a faraway stage at a music festival, or having a multilingual real-time translator feed at a lecture. Mixhalo has applications anywhere amplified audio exists to reach an audience, and even extends beyond that use case to applications where a PA system might be disruptive or otherwise not feasible or appropriate.

Mixhalo is the brainchild of Mike Einziger, co-founder and guitarist of the multi-platinum selling band Incubus and acclaimed violinist Ann Marie Simpson-Einziger, and is led by CEO Marc Ruxin, a long-time friend of Foundry’s and musictech veteran with whom we are delighted to have the opportunity to work.

Mixhalo fits directly into Foundry Group’s human-computer interaction (HCI) investment theme, and their tech has been used on tour by Incubus, Metallica and by Aerosmith in their ongoing Vegas residency, and is being piloted this summer at venues like Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View. We experienced it at a prog-metal show (Polyphia!) in Boulder, and we were also fortunate to see (and hear) the Aerosmith show in Vegas via Mixhalo, and it is an amazing and immersive experience. The quality improvement is akin to switching between standard definition and 4K video on your TV – once you’ve experienced it, you won’t want to go back. We’re excited to be working with the entire Mixhalo team and an incredible group of co-investors to make their platform ubiquitous.

You can read more about the announcement below:

variety.com/2019/digital/news/incubus-mixhalo-series-a-funding-1203275938/
hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/incubus-guitarist-mike-einzigers-audio-tech-startup-mixhalo-raises-107m-1226268