Edge Sound Research

Founded in 2020 by Ethan Castro and Valtteri Salomaki, students at UC Riverside, EDGE Sound Research emerged from Castro's personal journey as a hard-of-hearing music producer and engineer who experienced music through vibration and touch. Headquartered in Riverside, California, the innovative audio technology company graduated from Techstars 2021 accelerator program and has raised $2.7M in funding across two rounds, including a $1.9M seed round in March 2024. Led by CEO Valtteri Salomaki (UCR MBA alumnus with expertise in Information Systems and Marketing Strategy) and co-founder Dr. Ethan Castro (who completed his PhD research that became the foundation for the company), EDGE Sound Research specializes in proprietary Embodied Sound technology that transforms ordinary objects into high-fidelity sound sources. The 10-employee company developed the ResonX system, the world's first embodied audio system combining audible, tactile, and haptic audio, creating immersive speaker-less environments that users can both hear and feel. Through partnerships including a 6-month NBA project testing technology that converts sound into high-fidelity vibrations, EDGE Sound Research is revolutionizing audio experiences by building end-to-end control in real-time audio signals for current and next-generation content applications.