Sonic Fire Tech Closes $15M Seed to Fight Fires With Sound
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Sonic Fire Tech has capped its Seed round at $15 million, one of the largest in Ohio history. The O.H.I.O. Fund led the financing. Khosla Ventures, an original lead investor in the company, put in more money, and existing backers Third Sphere and AirAngels stayed in.
The technology takes its cue from NASA research and does away with water and chemicals entirely. Inaudible sound runs through PVC ceiling pipes, and when sensors pick up a fire, a generator pushes infrasonic waves at around 20 Hz into the flames. Fires go out within seconds, and the property avoids the water and chemical damage that conventional suppression leaves behind.
Preventing ignition in the first place, without shutting operations down, is the part that makes this interesting for facility owners who currently accept sprinkler damage as the cost of fire safety.
The company is headquartered in Cleveland. Its Ohio base also explains the lead investor, a fund focused on the state.
Capital will go toward expanding the engineering team, funding the battery of lab tests needed for National Fire Protection Association model code approvals, and research into containing lithium ion thermal runaway events.
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