The EDGE Sound Research team at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022. Courtesy EDGE Sound Research.

In 2020, Valtteri Salomaki and Ethan Castro, founders of Riverside startup EDGE Sound Research, presented their vision for the future of audio at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.

“Everyone thought we were absolutely crazy when we said you could feel and hear sound, turning your environment into a high-fidelity audio system,” said Salomaki, EDGE’s CEO.

At CES this year, the feedback on EDGE’s patent-pending technology was nothing short of spectacular. The device, called ResonX, attaches to any piece of furniture, such as a gaming chair or couch, and uses tactile audio that turns sound into vibration providing completely immersive entertainment experiences.

“Our grandiose vision is to fundamentally change how we perceive reality where the virtual world and real world are one-in-one,” said Salomaki.

Perhaps the best compliment at CES came from a man who attended the show for 25 consecutive years and called ResonX “the most impressive thing” he’d ever seen. But even the most fervent EDGE Sound Research fan may not understand just how remarkable the technology is given its origin.

An EDGE Sound Research engineer building a ResonX. Courtesy EDGE Sound Research.

Castro, EDGE’s CTO, was born prematurely, and a series of ear surgeries left him permanently hard-of-hearing. Castro remembers lying next to a subwoofer and feeling the vibration of bass and drums travel through his body. This deep connection with sound led him to become a professional audio engineer and a doctorate candidate in music at the University of California, Riverside. That’s where he invented EDGE’s technology to share with others how he experiences sound, to help everyone “hear” better than they ever thought possible.

“I knew the technology was something bigger than a research project for a doctoral program,” said Salomaki, an MBA student at UC Riverside at the time.

The two quickly put together a team of engineers and have been working nonstop to grow from an idea to a venture-funded company. EDGE Sound Research recently participated in the Minnesota Twins Accelerator by Techstars to explore B2B opportunities, specifically applications in natural places of entertainment such as sports stadiums, music venues, and movie theaters.

The startup is distributing its first consumer sound system to 50 “alpha” users who will give them feedback before officially launching the device this summer. These early adopters include Emmy-nominated and Grammy Award-winning producers and audio engineers, as well as top-level streamers and gamers.

“We want tastemakers to give us insights into what they want from this technology so we can build products around that future, versus just introducing a device to people,” said Salomaki.

Valtteri Salomaki demos ResonX for DJ Bonics. Courtesy EDGE Sound Research.

EDGE has secured $230,000 in pre-seed funding and will start publicly fundraising for a $4M seed round beginning this spring. Salomaki said UC Riverside and its EPIC Small Business Development Center have been massively supportive through mentoring, as well as strategies for fundraising, product design and business. Recognizing the necessity of having programs like UC Riverside’s EPIC SBDC and ExCITE incubator to support technology startups, the Riverside City Council recently voted unanimously to provide a total of $50,000 annually to support the programs. 

“Riverside is a great strategic location to start a business with minimal capital and still have the necessary resources all around,” Salomaki explained. “There is a lot of excitement around entrepreneurship here.”

“Other startups see the excitement around the success and growth of EDGE Sound Research and know this is possible for them too,” Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said. “EDGE is a leading example of the strength of Riverside’s startup community.”

For more about Edge Sound Research, go to www.edgesoundresearch.com.

Link to original article: https://riversideca.gov/press/riverside-startup-really-feels-sound

Today on Inland Edition, KVCR’s Lillian Vasquez speaks with Dr. Gloria Gonzalez-Rivera. She’s a UCR professor and part of the team leading Citrus Seeds LLC Angel Investors. Two Riverside startups received over $80,000 as winners of the Riverside Angel Summit. Dr. Gonzalez-Rivera shares more about the two local startups, their mission, and why they were selected.

To read the article that inspired this conversation, visit https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2022/02/16/agricultural-pest-control-and-energy-storage-startups-win-riverside-angel

FarmSense, Inc. and SiLi-ion, Inc. were selected as winners of the inaugural Riverside Angel Summit, a partnership between UC Riverside, the City of Riverside, and community members. The two startups emerged from an initial group of over 50 companies that applied to the competition. Each winner received $42,000 from Citrus Seeds LLC angel investors. 

FarmSense is an agriculture startup founded by UCR professor Eamonn Keogh and Shailendra Singh, who earned his doctoral degree at UCR in 2015. The company has developed ‘FlightSensor,’ a digital monitoring system that alerts growers about crop pests so they can better manage the use of insecticide sprays. The company’s product combines an automated sensor with a data subscription service to provide treatment options based on artificial intelligence and predictive modeling. It integrates into any farm management system, detects multiple species, and is designed to pay for itself within one season.

“This investment will allow us to speed manufacturing to help scale our technology and accelerate commercialization of our industry-transforming IoT pest FlightSensor. We are thankful to the UC Riverside team and Citrus Seeds for putting their trust in us and for the mentoring to help us get to where we are today” said FarmSense CEO Leslie Hickle.

SiLi-ion Inc. is a clean energy startup co-founded by UCR professor Lorenzo Mangolini. The company produces a “drop-in” additive that immediately elevates lithium-ion battery performance. The simple, cost-effective technology is based on the abundant and sustainable materials silicon and carbon and designed to be seamlessly added during manufacturing in large volume lithium-ion battery production facilities.

“We learned that the interest in potentially disruptive deep tech in the lithium-ion battery space extends into the angel investment community in Riverside and that we are far enough along to raise funds from this class of investors. The ecosystem developed by UC Riverside supports university-developed technology, and the start-ups associated with it are strong and growing,” said SiLi-ion CEO Mark Hatch.

The Riverside Angel Summit, funded in part by a US Economic Development Administration 2019 Seed Fund Support Grant, was launched on September 1, 2021, and concluded with investment awards taking place on January 10, 2022. The Summit brought together local entrepreneurs and angel investors who wanted to support the growth of the region’s innovation ecosystem by investing in high-quality local startups. 

Through a Special Purpose Vehicle portfolio fund managed by Citrus Seeds LLC, the Riverside Angel Summit provided new angel investors the opportunity to invest as a group and enhance their investment skills and networks. Start-up founders benefited from workshops and networking opportunities with experienced business executives and investors during the summit. In addition to the 3-month educational program delivered by UCR EPIC Small Business Development Center, startups participated in a series of pitch competitions that identified 24 quarterfinalists, 12 semifinalists and ultimately four finalists pitching to regional investors for seed capital. The finalists were then guided through a comprehensive due diligence process that enabled Citrus Seeds fund investors to identify the winners. 
 
The final selection of FarmSense and SiLi-ion was based on the founding teams’ composition, experience, and capabilities, as well as the innovations’ chances for commercialization success.

Riverside has seen a growth in technology-focused entrepreneurship over the last 5 years. UCR’s Office of Technology Partnerships (OTP) has contributed to this effort with over $22 million in federal, state, and private funding to bolster the innovation ecosystem, helping to launch the first venture capital fund in the Riverside area focused on providing seed capital and early-stage investments and establishing a robust entrepreneurial education program. 

In this time period, UCR’s OTP has awarded over $1.86 million in proof-of-concept funding, established the EPIC SBDC, a tech-focused small business development center, supported Small Business Innovation Research and Technology Transfer (SBIR/STTR) proposal development, and recruited a team of over 15 experienced executives and industry experts to support startup growth. These efforts have contributed to an increase in the number of quality local startups that have raised over $16 million in investment capital and government grants within the last year.  
 
“A key driver for the launch of the Riverside Angel Summit and the Citrus Seeds special purpose fund was the development of a robust investment community to help regional startups on their next stage of growth and root them in Riverside, a location where they can thrive,” said Rosibel Ochoa, associate vice chancellor for technology partnerships at UCR. “Until now, startups in Inland Southern California had to search for funding in places like Silicon Valley, and local investors, unaware of opportunities to invest close to home, invested elsewhere. The Riverside Angel Summit is the starting point to bring the two together to further strengthen the region’s entrepreneurial ecosystem.”
 
The UC Riverside’s OTP will continue to lead the Riverside Angel Summit and plans to make it a bi-yearly event with the next iteration launching in 2023.

Link to original article by Holly Ober: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2022/02/16/agricultural-pest-control-and-energy-storage-startups-win-riverside-angel

Four startups founded in Riverside County and developing with support of the UC Riverside Office of Technology Partnerships were finalists competing for up to $100,000 in the first Riverside Angel Summit, or RAS. The finalists are:

• GattaCo, Inc.: Developed in-home clinical quality blood/plasma sampling. 
• SiLi-ion: Developed a silicon nanoparticle-driven lithium-ion battery.
• FarmSense, Inc.: Invented an intelligent insect sensor for agricultural pest management.
• Pharm Robotics: Developed a robotic inoculation process for cattle.

RAS launched this year as an effort to identify, promote, invest in, and develop the most groundbreaking and promising ventures from the region. The program officially kicked off on Sept. 6 and culminates on Dec. 22, when investors will select at least one winning team to receive their investment.

“RAS aims to highlight the quality of startup innovations that the Riverside region has to offer, as well as increase awareness and access to early investment from local angel investors. We created the summit to further build the Riverside and Inland Empire innovation ecosystem,” said Rosibel Ochoa, associate vice chancellor, technology partnerships at UC Riverside. 

The UC Riverside team helped recruit angel investors and funding commitments, created the educational program for entrepreneurs and angel investors, and assisted with the development of the seed fund, Citrus Seeds LLC, a special-purpose fund dedicated to regional investors and startups. The UC Riverside team is funded in part by a U.S. Economic Development Administration 2019 Seed Fund Support Grant awarded to translate innovations into jobs through early-stage seed financing.  

Fifty high quality, promising new ventures from several industries applied to participate in the summit. The range of industries included agriculture, farming, life sciences, medical devices, energy and climate, cybersecurity, and geospatial mapping. 

Startup teams were trained and coached over two months through a series of eight workshops and other events. Topics included alternative funding options, pitch essentials, investment strategy, customer discovery, go-to-market tactics, investor criteria, capitalization tables and term sheets. 

The investors, some of whom were angel-investing for the first time, were in turn guided by UCR entrepreneur-in-residence mentors on how to assess investment opportunities. 

Three competitive pitch sessions led to investor selection of the four finalists competing for up to $100,000 in seed capital. Investors evaluated the team’s experience and qualifications; the problem, opportunity, and solution; the market size, competition, go-to-market strategy, business model, intellectual property, and finances, among others. Citrus Seeds Fund LLC investors are evaluating the four finalists to select one or more winners.

“Investor and founder feedback was very positive,” said Scott Brovsky, Director of EPIC Small Business Development Center. “The Riverside Angel Summit is a vital component of our entrepreneurial ecosystem that will help local startups stay and grow in the region, and will contribute to economic prosperity. We expect growth in the number of investors, fund size, and entrepreneur pool for 2022.”

Link to the original article by Holly Ober: https://news.ucr.edu/articles/2021/12/14/riverside-angel-summit-finalists-are-promising-medical-agricultural-and-energy