Flat Speaker Company Lands First Licensing Deal
A Hoosier audio technology startup has inked a licensing agreement with an audio design and manufacturing company headquartered in Taiwan. South Bend-based Resonado says its patented Flat Core Speaker technology will be manufactured and initially incorporated into a range of soundbar products from Zylux. Resonado co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Brian Cho says the deal validates the technology that was originally developed by him and his father in South Korea.
In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Cho said he believes the partnership will be the first of many.
“The biggest thing for any early-stage company is finding the right fit and finding a customer who’s as excited as we are and Zylux, they do about $200 million in revenue. They are a really large company compared to the size of our company and the fact that this well-known industry leader is licensing our technology and partnering up with an early-stage company of ours not only validates that our technology is real and that it’s going to give them competitive advantages…now a lot of customers will be experiencing our technology.”
Cho says the deal started at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, where Resonado debuted its latest products featuring the FCS technology. He says Zylux and other companies expressed interest in the technology and the agreement was signed.
Zylux plans to begin integrating the FCS technology into new soundbar products, but the company says it expects to expand that effort into a wide range of other audio products.
“They’re licensing our technology to work with a lot of the customers of theirs and come up with a very innovative product with distinguishable features that customers will appreciate,” said Cho. “We’ve become the technology provider where we enable them to create something new, something innovative that customers (have) yet to see. So we are very excited about working with them and utilizing their manufacturing expertise and their plethora of resources that also connects us with their customers and really taking the product and the technology to the next level.”
Resonado launched in 2017 and last year, became the official sound partner of Notre Dame Athletics. Cho says that partnership was a key reason for securing the licensing deal.
“Their brand exposure was amazing for the company. It actually got a lot of people excited and a lot of potential customers looked into our company, learned about our technology and (it took us) to the next level.”
Cho says the company has other licensing deals in the works, though specific details are not yet being announced.
In March, Cho appeared on Inside INdiana Business with Gerry Dick to talk about the company and its technology. You can watch the full interview by clicking here.
Cho says he believes the partnership will be the first of many.