Aodyo shared an update on their Kickstarter crowdfunding project to fund production of the Anyma Omega polyphonic physical modelling synthesizer to say that the project is at risk of failing, because costs have been much higher than they anticipated, and further more, the company is at risk of bankruptcy.
228 backers pledged €218,498 to help fund production of the new synth.
Their update summarizes the company’s current status:
Current Situation
Over the past months, we’ve encountered significant difficulties with both the Loom and Omega projects, which have severely impacted our financial situation.
Loom: The production costs and delays we encountered have turned out to be much higher than we initially anticipated. Due to extended lead times for the electronic components from our manufacturer, we have been unable to launch production.
Omega: The system’s complexity has far exceeded what we originally planned. The powerful nature of this synthesizer required multithreading due to the characteristics of the processors available on the market. We also faced setbacks from architectural changes necessitated by component shortages. These combined factors have led to much longer delays than expected.
We had hoped to raise additional funds by leveraging the campaign’s momentum, but unfortunately, this effort has not been successful. As a result, we are now in a difficult financial position and have been unable to secure the working capital necessary to move forward.
What’s Next
Our sales of remaining stock should allow us to continue our operations. During this time, we will continue doing everything we can to secure an investor and unblock the situation. If we can manage to start the first batch of Loom, this would allow us to deliver to stores right after fulfilling your pledges, stabilizing our situation and enabling us to finish the Omega development.
However, if we do not succeed in securing new investments or partnerships in the coming weeks, we will be left with no other choice but to file for bankruptcy.”
Risk is always a factor with projects to fund production of new musical gear. Synthtopia tries to always note this as part of our coverage of crowdfunding projects, including this one. Complete failures on music gear projects have been fairly rare, but as this one proves, it’s a real risk. Backers of this project should see the project site for Aodyo’s full update.
ugh… i figured something was wrong. at least i got a Phi.
That was the same history for the MOD Dwarf Kickstarter project. I have never again supported a Kickstarter project since i lost trust in crowdfunding.
Lots of people with good ideas, but not clue about real cost estimations…
Ooofa. I was really looking forward to the Loom MPE controller project and backed it. Developing it and a polysynth was just too much. I hope they can pull things together.
Should’ve gone with a polyphonic version of Anyma Phi from the get-go! Now we may never see it…
I believe that Aodyo is now selling the software version of the Anyma Phi that’ll run polyphonically in a DAW. There’s a mac and windows version.
I received an email from them about it a couple of weeks ago.
Yep, I just checked. It’s called Anyma V and the introductory price is 79 Euro.
It’s buggy. 🙁 Regularly it just stops playing for no reason.
I guess it was a desperate attempt to raise funds then.
Charging money for an apparent Beta release is somewhat dodgy :-/
oddly, my hardware Phi also just stops working too. so i guess its authentic.
sad, it was going to be a great synth for hw phys modeling. guess i’ll have to wait for a nonexistant Prologue II.
Bizarre ! Dégelasse !
As a backer of this synth (Omega desktop) I’m finding Aodyo’s lack of customer engagement across Kickstarter and indiegogo beyond frustrating. We are all effectively existing investors in the business, and are probably the best source of additional cash funding for a first round. Why no attempt to even explore this option? Is that because it’s too late already?
Tip: Never invest in Kickstarter projects.
If a project is good enough it can be funded without these crowdfunding websites.
These guys went through a quarter of a million dollars and have nothing to show for it. (and that’s only on Kickstarter). I’ll would never ever trust these guys ever.
this is a sad moment for Aodyo and for crowdfunding in general. All commercial activity is based on trust, and when the trust is gone, new crowdfunded projects may not get sufficient supporters.
I’ve heard that many crowdfunding projects set the campaign cost much too low, just for being able to produce a newsletter saying: “campaign fully funded in few days/hours”, creating the illusion for themselves and for the customers that this campaign is super good.
What will potential customers do? Some can afford losing hundreds of dollars, write them off, just to support the next best campaign. But some don’t have this fortune, and they will rather abstain.
That is why I don’t do crowd funding for my upcoming pedal business…because I dont want the extra pressure of a deadline….if you self fund then you can take your sweet time, might take years but I think it is the best way to go. You sell things cheap at first to build a customer base, even if it costs you money….it is a lot of work, but anything worth doing is.
I backed Conductive Labs’ MRCC and couldn’t be happier. On the flip side, I backed the Mod Dwarf and pulled out early to use that money for another purchase. That decision turned out to be prescient as that campaign melted down over the coming months. I do think the Mod Dwarf backers did end up getting their pedals, which is fortunate.
After my experience with the Mod Dwarf, I remember seeing the Aodyo Omega campaign and thinking to myself “I’ll wait to see if they deliver”. Hopefully, they will find a way to deliver something to the backers who put their faith in them.
Maybe Modal Electronics can be merged with them and they can team up to both come out of this stronger?
Or Behringer, for once they could produce something which is not entirely copied!
I backed the Loom, half expecting something like this to happen. I’ve got my fingers burned before with crowdfunding, so these days I only back something if I’m prepared to lose that money as that’s the thing you have to remember with crowdfunding, it’s an investment in a project, NOT a purchase..
That being said, the thing which *really* winds me up about this and other similar kickstarter debacles is when they actually raise significantly more than they pitched for and then still end up going pop.
On KS they pitch for $50k and raised $160 , similar on IG, rising $190k vs $50k goal. So more than 3x what they asked for and yet they STILL go bust! That screams of total mis-management, and really should be investigated…