Key hire and six-figure funding boost for Edinburgh audio pioneer behind Bluetooth-beating tech

Edinburgh technology firm Ingenious Audio has secured fresh six-figure investment as it looks to get its “better than Bluetooth” tech into a range of consumer goods.

Steve McMahon, who has joined Ingenious Audio, alongside the Edinburgh firm's chief executive John Crawford.

The capital firm is behind patented wi-fi audio technology known as “Fi-Live”, which is claimed to provide higher quality, longer range and faster transmission, all while connecting to the standard wireless systems in PCs, tablets and smartphones. This is said to be ideal for live music applications like the guitar or microphone, time sensitive systems like TV speakers and gaming headphones and high performance applications such as hi-fi speakers.

A six-figure funding deal with participation from existing backers Kelvin Capital and Scottish Enterprise will allow the business to broaden into being a technology platform provider as well as a product company. Joining the team to help lead the commercialisation of the technology is Steve McMahon, who is said to have more than 30 years of experience and was recently instrumental in a trade sale of Scottish tech firm Optoscribe to Intel.

John Crawford, chief executive of Ingenious Audio, which was founded in 2010 and also has a design team in Glasgow, said: “Steve brings the skillset and first-hand experience of generating demand in a very targeted manner which is critical to advance Fi-Live as we expand from being a product focused company in one niche to a broad technology provider.”

McMahon said: “In applications utilising mobile phones, the removal of headphone and power connectors has made it increasingly difficult for musicians and other users to interact with these massively powerful and convenient devices. Moreover the developments in the next generation of wi-fi bring extensive data capabilities over huge physical areas facilitating future applications for real time audio streaming in a range of sectors including music, entertainment and communications.”

John McNicol of Kelvin Capital added: “This is a truly exciting time for the company as they work towards expanding the business into both a technology provider and a product company.”

The Glasgow-based investment syndicate closed the first half of this year having concluded record investment of £7.8 million into its portfolio of Scottish technology companies.