Every once in a while, a new startup crosses your radar and reminds you how exciting hardware can be. It’s a relative rarity in consumer electronics, a category dominated by corporations like Samsung, Apple, and Sony, which are (perhaps understandably) somewhat risk-averse.
based in Melbourne Nura was one of those companies.. I distinctly remember the startup visiting TechCrunch’s New York offices shortly after I started here. The first prototype was a sight to behold: sure enough, a mess of wires and circuitry in one big box. But the point was clear. It turned out that wireless audio could be a lot better than what we’ve slowly grown accustomed to over the years.
At the base of the company’s various headsets were customizable audio profiles, created by mapping the unique architecture of the user’s ear. I called a colleague for a second opinion (and to make sure he wasn’t listening). They confirmed that there was, indeed, something on the next level: frequencies and elements in music that you completely miss in a different pair.
The startup was recently acquired by Southern California medical device firm Masimo Corporation for an undisclosed sum. Nura will join other consumer audio brands under that umbrella, including Bowers and Wilkins, Polk Audio and Denon, which all entered its portfolio when it acquired Sound United in April last year.
the news was announced in a low voice a couple of weeks ago in a press release titled “Nura joins forces with Denon.” What could easily have been mistaken for a partnership deal was actually an acquisition of Nura talent and technology.
“It was important to put the consumer first,” Masimo COO Blair Tripodi tells TechCrunch, when asked about the new revelation. “We chose to highlight Denon’s long-standing heritage and sound acoustics, so fans are just as excited as we are about the future of Masimo AAT and the possibilities it opens up.”
Tripodi, however, confirmed the acquisition and hire, stating that “Nura was a technology addition and an acquisition and hire of engineering talent to support Masimo’s adaptive acoustic technology (AAT) platform.”
The company is cagey about details here, but the short version is that Nura’s technology is being incorporated into Denon’s competing offering. Employees previously involved in Nura research and development will join the same team at Denon. The company did not explicitly confirm the layoffs, instead offering the line: “Our goal is to retain critical talent and integrate their employees into our business with the goal of advancing our AAT platform.”
Unfortunately, it’s simple enough to read between the lines in that. As for the execs from the former startup, Tripodi says, Nura’s existing leadership team will remain intact and report to various Masimo leaders, depending on the department’s role.
Masimo says the plans do not currently affect Nura’s offices, nor does it ask the employees it retains to relocate. As for the timeline, Nura co-founder and CEO Luke Campbell adds: “The integration of Nura into Masimo AAT is underway with the goal of bringing personalized audio to more customers around the world.”
In past conversations, Nura has prided herself on remaining fiercely independent. I’ve previously discussed technology licensing or acquisition issues, but the startup has long been committed to building its own hardware products. The portfolio grew rapidly as the startup explored various monetization models, including a fairly early exploration of the hardware-as-a-service model, which has been seen as an increasingly viable strategy for the consumer electronics market.
“It was always our vision to share award-winning technology with as many people as possible,” says Campbells, when asked about the change in direction. “Masimo and the Masimo AAT platform gave us the opportunity to enhance our existing technology framework, and I couldn’t be more excited about the future. Masimo’s industry-leading signal processing capabilities, coupled with Denon’s commitment to quality sound, will unlock opportunities that can take the custom audio space to new heights.”
Nobody said hardware was easy. And while the Nura continued to offer a differentiator, the headphone market has become more crowded with each passing year. It may also be a punitive category for hardware manufacturers that don’t produce their own phones. For many, or even most consumers, there is a benefit to the interoperability of those devices. Often times, those who go for a different option are looking for a less expensive product, and subsequently the prices have dropped considerably. Nura products, meanwhile, largely sat between $150 and $200.
Add to that supply chain woes and seemingly endless economic headwinds, and it’s easy to see how the path forward suddenly becomes much cloudier than it might have seemed three or four years ago. Nura declined to comment on what circumstances ultimately led her to sell to Masimo. Co-founder and CEO Kyle Slater left Nura in 2017 and most recently served as CPO of Melbourne-based medtech company Seer. The third co-founder, Dragan Petrović, left in December.
In the release above, the company outlines what the future looks like for existing Nura users, writing, in part:
All Nura products will continue to be supported throughout the warranty period. Existing Nura customers can be confident that their Nura device will be supported during this transition, including customer support and warranty support. The Nura app will continue to work as it does today, so you’ll still be able to create custom hearing profiles and use all of the app’s features.
Masimo says it will sell the rest of its Nura inventory, at which point it appears that nura the mark will be completely sunset. The underlying technology of the startup will be a Denon exclusive, going forward, with no plans to license it to third parties. Details about the first Denon product to support Adaptive Sound Blended Technologies will be announced sometime this summer.