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By Rick Smith, Local Tech Wire editor
DURHAM, N.C. – Several new tunes are being written about the business of , a Raleigh-based startup that has developed what could be revolutionary software for the music industry.
First verse, it has secured $10.7 million in new venture capital funding from in Durham and Capitol Broadcasting, the parent of WRAL.com, in Raleigh.
Second verse, it has a new day-to-day conductor in Kip Frey as chief executive officer. The veteran venture capitalist is leaving Intersouth after nearly a decade to resume day-to-day management of a startup venture.
Third verse, the company will relocate its headquarters to the American Tobacco Historical District in Durham where Intersouth is based. (The complex also is operated by Capitol.)
Fourth verse, Zenph has a new name – Zenph Sound Innovations.
Fifth verse, founder John Q. Walker will serve on an expanded board of directors includes Frey, Mitch Mumma and Katrin Burt of Intersouth, plus Matthew Szulik, chairman and former CEO of Raleigh-based Red Hat and William Patry, senior copyright counsel at Google.
As Frey joins the company, Walker becomes Zenph’s chief technical officer.
Walker, a former executive at Ganymede Software which he and its founders sold in 2000, launched Zenph in 2002. A holder of a doctorate in software engineering from UNC-Chapel Hill, he also earned an undergraduate degree in piano at Southern Illinois University.
Frey also receives an ownership stake in Zenph.
Asked why he chose to leave Intersouth, Frey told Local Tech Wire and WRAL.com that he liked Zenph’s potential “The chance to fundamentally alter an industry without requiring significant changes in consumer behavior,” he said. “And the chance to work with really, really smart entrepreneurs.”
Zenph has developed software that enables the intricate recreation of music down to the very way it was performed by past masters, including the exact duplication of pressure on pedals and keys.
One of its albums recently was nominated for a Grammy. The company has already published some other music albums and has gained extensive exposure in the industry with software-controlled piano concerts in some very high-profile music venues.
Earlier this month, for example, Zenph technology was used to “re-perform” a performance by the late composer and pianist Sergie Rachmaninoff at Carnegie Hall in New York. The software controlled onstage a Steinway grand piano.
With its new management and funding, Zenph plans other changes.
“Technology development, branding, market expansion,” Frey said when asked how the funding will be used.
According to Burt, Intersouth had several reasons for making the investment in Zenph.
“This technology has the potential to be broadly applied across the media and entertainment industry – audio recordings, movie and television soundtracks, live musical performances, music/acoustic education and on and on,” Brit explained. “The potential is very exciting.
“And the technology is already so good – the audio output that Zenph creates is extremely high quality, as evidenced by the fact that one of the company’s CDs received a Grammy nomination and they’ve all received great critical reviews.
“Beyond that, the technology is unique. No one else can do anything like what Zenph is doing. The technical team at Zenph (John Walker, Anatoly Larkin & Randal Leistikow) is just the perfect team to do it, too. There’s so much expertise there.”
Brit also said Frey’s decision was “absolutely” part of Intersouth’s investment reasoning.
“The current team has done a terrific job getting the company to where it is today, but to broadly commercialize the technology a different set of skills is required,” she explained. “Kip possesses a combination of skills and experience that match the company’s requirements very well – experience in copyright law, running software companies and media companies; skills in negotiation, dealmaking, working with lots of different kinds of people, connections in the media/entertainment industry, experience fundraising and working with institutional investors.”
Frey began his career as an intellectual property rights attorney before coming to the Triangle and running two software ventures that were acquired. He joined Intersouth in 2000.
“Since founding Zenph in 2002, we’ve been focused on developing our technology with the promise that it will revolutionize music production,” Walker said in a statement. “After working heads-down for the last several years, we are excited to hire a veteran CEO and close a round of financing that will allow us to take our company to the next level, launching the next phase of Zenph’s mission.”
