Sonos, the Santa Barbara, California based startup that develops of wireless multi-room music systems, is taking a new round of financing from London-based Index Ventures, we’ve heard from multiple sources. Partner Mike Volpi, a forcer Cisco exec who found himself in the middle of a huge drama last year around eBay’s Skype spinoff, will join the board of directors of Sonos.
Volpi will bring real expertise to the Sonos board. As recently as 2007 he ran an $11 billion routing and access products busines for Cisco. He clearly knows how to sell products at scale.
Sonos has been around since 2003 and has raised some $40 million from private angel investors and BV Capital. Until last year the company sold very high end music products that users loved passionately, but the mutli-thousand dollar price point for a complete system made mainstream penetration difficult.
But in 2009 Sonos began selling a new product, the S5 music system, that users control via their iPhone. The S5 is just $400 and has driven “massive growth” says the company.
Like Flip last year, Sonos likely had a choice between selling now or raising new money for major expansion. Flip sold to Cisco. Sonos, it seems, is taking more money, but adding an ex-Cisco exec as well. Perhaps they’ll get their cake and eat it, too.
Sonos wouldn’t comment on this story. But we believe the deal will close and be announced in the next week or two.
Congrats @sonos, best purchase I’ve made in years.
Arrington still shilling for Volpi.
What, you guys were college roommates or something?
The S5 system is very cool. We use it play Sirius Radio, Last.fm, and pull in AM/FM radio as well. The sound is very good. A lot of fun to use with the iPhone. Can’t wait to have a big enough house where I have to buy a lot more of these units!
I spent a LOT of money on my audio/video and Sonos is definitely one of those things I’d recommend. Now if they can just PLEASE integrate Spotify into Sonos, then it’ll really, truly be awesome.
Santa Barbara, California is such a beautiful place to vacation at. Loved how Santa Barbara made me feel, when I was there for a week :)
Best part of Sonos is the new iPhone app. Was about to drop another few hundred dollars on a controller when the iPhone app is much more portable AND FREE. It’s strange because it must canibalize their hardward model.
I thought the same thing until I played with the CR200. I never use my CR100 anymore since the iphone app came out, but it is still nice to have a dedicated controller in the house for when you aren’t there. The CR200 has a very nice screen and is zippy fast.
Did the Sonos management and board not read Volpi’s emails in the Joost case how Volpi thinks of his business partners? Basically he says “everyone I ever worked with is an idiot or a maniac.”
I spent roughly $300 to put an Apple Airport express in three different areas of my house. I have a set of speakers plugged into each router.
I use my iphone as a remote for the itunes loaded on my imac…
just as good as Sonos and a lot cheaper. Ha…Apple actually did something cheaper….
I like their product, simple and elegant, sort of like Tivo just does the magic! Congratulations.
So sorry, this is a test for posting comment in PIMShell.
so sorry,this is a test.
Cool products but why would they want Mike Volpi on their board after all the problems he was involved in? The drama coming our of Joost was about as bad as it gets. Are they kidding?
Don’t blame Volpi for Joost having a bad / no business model with founders that ditched (probably a good move).
I don’t think publishing these deals pre-announcement is a good idea. Someone is probably breaking NDA and it can harm negotiations for the company and its not really breaking news that needs to be published; and probably woldn’t even be covered by anyone else so you are not really even getting a ‘scoop’ here. These guys work their asses of for years and a subtle valuation swings can be harmful to the founders, or other getting an exit. I can’t imagine sonos needs the funding so this is probably a liquidity round. Personally, I hope they Sonos remains private and do for video distribution what they have done for video distribution. I also look forward to what they can do with an iPad!
Sonos has brought peace to my family..my kids have their own zone, wife has her zone, and the garage zone is mine and mine alone. Sound quality is insane and surprisingly affordable.
And it’s nice to see a Santa Barbara company getting good coverage on on T.C. John MacFarlane, founder of Sonos is a legend in these parts, both from his success as founder & exit hero extraordinaire of software.com, and now with Sonos. A wise investment for B.V. and the lucky angels invited to participate.
hmmmm, I’m not sure I understand the value… it seems fairly second-rate audio quality with the value-add of control without wires… You can achive better with iTunes, and as many Express boxes as you have rooms / stereos – and you have the Sonos experience, only you get to choose the amps and speakers… (I would presume a user would have iTunes if they’re using an iPhone to control it all)
Very helpful, I like this post!
мини отели спб