After Quiet Deal, Music Therapy Startup Sync Project Now Part of Bose

A quick update on an intriguing Boston startup: Sync Project, which said on its blog that it is “developing music as precision medicine,” has been acquired by audio giant Bose.

The deal was quietly announced last month, and no terms were disclosed. Sync Project said its public services would remain open and free to use, for now. Sync Project co-founder and CEO Marko Ahtisaari still lists Sync Project as his main affiliation on his LinkedIn profile; co-founder and CTO Yadid Ayzenberg is now director of wellness software at Bose, according to his LinkedIn profile.

As of last May, Sync Project said it had raised $5 million from investors including Reid Hoffman, Greylock Partners, Esther Dyson, David Shaw, Digital Garage, and PureTech Health. Bose Ventures was also an investor in Sync Project, says Steve Romine, managing director at Bose Ventures.

Sync Project got started in 2014 as a collaboration between PureTech and several academic institutions, including the MIT Media Lab. The goal was to study the therapeutic value of music in large populations, and then create and deliver personalized music to improve health in areas such as autism, anxiety, sleep disorders, and pain.

PureTech’s Ketki Karanam and Alexis Kopikis were involved in the early days of the startup. Kopikis left PureTech and Sync Project in 2015 and now lists himself on LinkedIn as venture storyteller at Alexify.co and founding partner at Ubuntu Labs. Karanam remains at PureTech Health as a vice president, according to her LinkedIn.

Xconomy senior editor Jeff Engel contributed to this report.

Author: Gregory T. Huang

Greg is a veteran journalist who has covered a wide range of science, technology, and business. As former editor in chief, he overaw daily news, features, and events across Xconomy's national network. Before joining Xconomy, he was a features editor at New Scientist magazine, where he edited and wrote articles on physics, technology, and neuroscience. Previously he was senior writer at Technology Review, where he reported on emerging technologies, R&D, and advances in computing, robotics, and applied physics. His writing has also appeared in Wired, Nature, and The Atlantic Monthly’s website. He was named a New York Times professional fellow in 2003. Greg is the co-author of Guanxi (Simon & Schuster, 2006), about Microsoft in China and the global competition for talent and technology. Before becoming a journalist, he did research at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. He has published 20 papers in scientific journals and conferences and spoken on innovation at Adobe, Amazon, eBay, Google, HP, Microsoft, Yahoo, and other organizations. He has a Master’s and Ph.D. in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT, and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.