Riverside, Calif. – October 27, 2026 -- EDGE Sound Research has raised an additional $2 million led by Stormbreaker Ventures, bringing its total funding to $9 million as it extends sensor technology proven in live sports into physical AI, robotics and autonomous systems.
Fresh capital funds sports deployments and a push into physical AI
The company will use the money to continue deployments with live sports broadcasters, leagues and venues. It will also expand its proprietary multimodal sensor data and develop applications for robotics, autonomous systems and intelligent environments.
EDGE Sound fuses audio with video, tracking and location data
The platform captures signals from microphones and sensor arrays already installed in a space and isolates individual sources and events from overlapping noise. It then fuses them with video, tracking, timing and location data. The output is a structured, real-time picture of a scene: what happened, where, when and to which object.
In sports, that lets a broadcaster automatically follow a single player's audio throughout a game. EDGE Sound does not replace the cameras, trackers and sensors an operator already owns. It connects them into a single interpretation layer.
Virtual Sound Engine already runs commercially with the NBA and Fox Sports
Live sports gave the company an immediate commercial market and a testbed in noisy, complex environments. Its Virtual Sound Engine is deployed commercially across live sports. Customers and partners include Shure, the NBA, Fox Sports and the United States Tennis Association.
CEO and co-founder Valtteri Salomaki argues that a broadcaster tracking one player and a robot detecting an event behind it are the same technical problem. He said the company started with sound because most systems discard it, and solving it forced EDGE to connect every other sensor in the room.
Stormbreaker backs the perception layer for physical AI
Said Mia, Founder and Managing Partner at Stormbreaker Ventures, said models and robots are ready but the underlying systems "cannot reliably tell what is happening in real time." He added that EDGE is building that layer with paying customers.
Stormbreaker is an early-stage firm focused on connectivity infrastructure for AI, including edge compute, IoT and connected mobility.
EDGE Sound grew out of doctoral research at the University of California, Riverside. Co-founder Dr. Ethan Castro, who was born hard of hearing, studied how people perceive their surroundings through hearing and physical vibration. Salomaki brought a background in information systems, marketing and emerging technologies and treated sound as a source of data.