Music technology company ROLI has announced that the company has raised an additional $27 million in investment “to accelerate growth” and bring its instruments, like the Seaboard RISE, right, to musicians around the world.
Company representatives say the Series B fundraising will help ROLI scale to meet growing demand, expand in new markets, and “intensively build” out its product, engineering, and marketing teams in North America and Europe.
Roland Lamb, Founder and CEO of ROLI, said: “The success of the Seaboard has shown that people want musical devices that are elegant, advanced, and open to all-and as easy to use as a smartphone or tablet. We’re thrilled to be partnering with some of the world’s most experienced investors as we revolutionize how people express themselves through music. And as we continue this journey, we are looking for everyone – from coders and makers to composers and musicians – to join the ROLI team as we change the shape of music.”
ROLI has developed a series of connected hardware, software, platform, and developer products. The Seaboard RISE, an instrument that launched in September 2015, remodels the piano keyboard as a soft, smooth, touch-responsive surface that lets music-makers shape sound through five dimensions of touch. NOISE, launched late in 2015, a free iOS app that turns iPhones and iPads into musical instruments, applies Apple’s 3D Touch technology to music creation.
Here’s a video, from the 2016 Winter NAMM Show, that shows ROLI’s RISE controllers in action:
Jordan Rudess composed a prog jam for the event, written for three performers with 25-note Rise controllers & a drummer.
The Seaboard Rise is one of a growing number of controllers that support Multidimensional Polyphonic Expression (MPE), a new standard communicating expressive performance control via MIDI.
More information on the funding round and the ROLI product line is available on the ROLI website.
would love to have like a roli mini key version.
i do like the 49 but i do enjoy mini keys for portability
hope they keep making great stuff
“would love to have like a roli mini key”
You are a brave man. Its very dangerous to use “love” and “mini key” in the same sentence in here 😉
Let’s just hope those piano key loving trolls would fade away. Mini keys are cool!
Really enjoying my Rise 25. With the power of bitwig and its support for MPE, plus all these new iPad toys coming out. Great investment! I hope the continue to make awesome stuff. I’m in for the long haul.
I wish Roli would put as much effort into their flagship product Grand as they put into the Rise. There is still no Windows compatible software for Grand, although it has been out for many years already!
I understand that it is still not easy to find portable computer (laptop) under 2K, which is capable of ruining equator synth engine smoothly (cpu requirements are very high)… and there is still no any evidence from hardware synth manufacturers that they have any plans to support MPE in hardware. I see this as main limitation… Rise as controller seems priced right, but running a mpe capable synth is still a challange
Really? I can run strobe 2, equator, bitwig with no problem on a 2012 mbp with i7 with 16gb ram running 10.11 el cap
No problem.
This is exactly what I’m talking about macbook pro i7 costs from 2-2.5K euros in my area and together with with rise 47 it is beyond 3K euros, which makes actual costs not any cheaper than Seabord Grand 61. Rise helps only for the folks, which already have computer powerful enough.
ah, I see your point mate. 🙁
just decided this past weekend that, for my first controller…it’s gonna be a Rise 49! Had been considering the Nektar P6…but just can’t turn away from the unique possibilities inherent in the Rise.
also thinking about getting one, but i went 2 times already to the music shop to try it out.
it’s great, but not perfect and a lot of money …
the abilty to fastshift chords like on the flat continuum is also very tempting
hard decision at this price range…
i hear you my friend; usually I like to wait for the 2nd iteration of a product (or at least wait a while for bugs to get worked out)…but, I need a controller and I think am ok in working with the bugs in order to have that level of expression.
Rise is rev 2. Grand was rev 1.
This is great news! Apple being on board with MPE is pretty significant. Other companies would be foolish not to get involved, with the popularity of Roli there is too much money to be made.
i know it is a great keyboard
BUT
that price says ouch
hopefully they are finding why to have it function but where it does not cost more than an iPad