Member Article

International digital audio system manufacturer expands Coventry office

An international company that makes digital audio systems that offer the highest quality sound to music lovers all over the world has expanded its Coventry office after achieving strong growth.

Innuos, which has its headquarters and manufacturing centre in Portugal, has expanded its office space at the University of Warwick Science Park’s Venture Centre where it plans to add further staff over the coming year.

The company develops its own intuitive software and easy-to-use hardware for music servers and streamers exclusively designed, from the ground up for digital audio. These music servers offer a much higher sound quality than can be achieved through other sources not specifically intended for music, such as PCs or mobile devices.

Its products, which range in price from £1,049 to £12,000, are aimed at music enthusiasts and during the Covid-19 crisis, the company was still able to experience significant growth due to the lockdown restrictions and people having more time to immerse themselves in their music.

Innuos was founded in 2009, initially as a hobby, by CEO, Nuno Vitorino, and Amelia Santos who both originate from Portugal. They were both pursuing corporate careers in London – Nuno with Deloitte and Amelia with Tesco – when they developed their first product in an effort to experience higher-quality music in digital format, as there was nothing else suitable on the market.

Fast forward seven years and they’d both given up their well-paid careers and had launched the Innuos brand and a range of award-winning products.

Amelia said: “It started as something that we were interested in for ourselves but we realised that if it was a product we wanted, others may want it too.

“We decided to list it on Amazon and Ebay. The UK is such a great country to try something like this because other places are less flexible about buying an unknown product or brand.

“Within six months, we had sold 200 units and realised at that moment, we potentially had a business on our hands.”

The company maintains two offices between Portugal, as its headquarters and a sales office in the UK, originally in Swindon, before moving to the University of Warwick Science Park in 2018. It has now expanded within the Venture Centre as sales have continued to grow. Innuos now sells its products in 40 markets worldwide and has more than 300 resellers across the globe. Amelia added: “We like the University of Warwick Science Park because of its great location and its connections through to the University, which we have utilised for internships and we hope to do that again.”

“We currently use the office for sales and marketing but we are also considering using it for software development and will need additional staff.”

“There are other audio companies in the area and we are also beginning to look at digital audio solutions for the automotive sector, because that is something customers are starting to ask us about and, of course, Coventry and Warwickshire is the perfect place as it has a really vibrant eco-system in this sector.”

Jane Talbot, centre manager of the Venture Centre, said: “We are delighted to see Innuos growing with us here at the University of Warwick Science Park at what is an exciting time for the company.

“We are a hotbed for high-tech, innovative businesses here at the Venture Centre thanks to the flexible, safe and variety of services we offer and that, coupled with the economic make-up of the region, make us an attractive base.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .