MIRA Technology Park People Article:

For our latest Park People article, we speak with Mike Grant, CEO of Warwick Acoustics Ltd, about his journey from aerospace to audio innovation, and what it takes to scale disruptive technology in the UK.

I feel lucky to have enjoyed an eclectic career driven by a fascination to push boundaries using technology. With my PhD in fibre optic communication systems, I began working in British Aerospace on satellite systems - that was where you went 40 years ago if you wanted to journey to new frontiers! There I worked developing laser based optical intersatellite links - a technology which is used today in Starlink - and was involved in the early cellular licensing programmes including being part of the consortium that secured the original license that became Orange UK. I was motivated by the role of technology in improving the human experience and the new world of mobile communications was being used to address our human desire for entertainment and interaction.

For over a decade I helped raise finance to support the introduction of the internet on mobile phone networks. My work involved building fundraising cases based on predictions of the likely evolution of markets driven by human behaviour, the evolution of network and handset capabilities, and the fundamental economics of the technology. I worked with financial institutions and operators across three continents to support deployment of services that are today core to all our lives. Understanding the capabilities of new technology was important, but understanding business models, consumer needs, and readiness for adoption was equally critical. I was pleased to be able to position a compelling vision alongside a strong financial model and an understanding of the human behavioural trends that would drive consumer market shifts. The smartphone is one of the most rapidly adopted and influential new technologies in modern history and it was incredible to be at the start of that journey.

In the early 2000s I moved to Superscape to help adapt their 3D graphics technology to enable the market for gaming on mobile phones. We developed the first global 3D graphics standard in mobile communications and that world exploded when we moved into the age of the touchscreen. I remember the debate over whether we, the general public, would ever accept a mobile phone without a keypad. In 2004, I worked with the team on the touchscreen-based Motorola E800 in China while US and European operators predicted it would never fly there. Then a project manager from Motorola went to work with Apple on integrating iTunes into Motorola’s mobile phones and the next thing you know we have the iPhone in 2007! For me, the iPhone is a great example of excellence in engineering and insight into human behaviour. To make a great technology product, you need both. And that is exactly what we have at Warwick Acoustics.

When Mercia first approached me about leading the team at Warwick Acoustics, around £5m had been invested with limited success. The business was looking at lots of markets without any clear focus and understanding of requirements, or how to develop the technology. I admit I was reluctant at first because it didn’t seem as exciting as space or mobile phones! But then I had my first listening experience, and I immediately got it. It grabbed me. I was emotionally connected through the experience it delivered. And the market opportunity was obvious as it delivers a 90% reduction in energy usage at a time when the automotive industry is shifting to electric vehicles. Moving from a high to a low energy density power source puts a premium on efficiency - and now we have a solution for in-cabin audio.

With the critical support of Mercia as our financial backer, I restructured the business, focused it on automotive, and moved us back to the Midlands and to MIRA Tech Park. We needed to be here to address the automotive market and to find the right skills to lead the development of the technology. Our CTO Ben came on board in 2018 and is a perfect example of the kind of talent high-growth businesses like Warwick Acoustics need. His background is across multiple scientific disciplines. He has a crucial ability to innovate at a system level, based on a deep understanding of the first principles of a scientific discipline, and he has automotive and manufacturing industry experience. When Ben joined, we had our first product in headphones. In 2019 we gave our first automotive target customer a 40-minute demo listening experience which he never forgot. An enchantment moment, and very soon, car owners of this automotive brand will be able to experience the same!

At Warwick Acoustics, we have a great team and a positive, cohesive culture. Everyone buys into the vision and believes in what we want to achieve, bringing together the multiple skillsets that a high-growth start-up needs. A successful business needs contributions from everyone in the team working together. We are only ever as strong as our weakest link. But it’s not been easy. There are many paths to take to bring a new disruptive technology to a billion-dollar market. We have had to take a particular route because of the limitations of the UK finance market, fundamentally, a function of historic legislation leading to “over de-risking” of UK pension funds. This has been recognised by Government and steps appear to be being taken to address this. I have experienced the world of difference between the US technology investment landscape and the UK venture capital ecosystem. The US has greater scale and a greater appetite for risk compared with the UK. If we had grown Warwick Acoustics there, I am sure I would have raised more money sooner, created more jobs, and got there quicker.

When supporting high-growth technology businesses, there is always a balance between too much and too little capital and the length of the funding runway. I have had to manage seven venture capital raises in eight years (one every 15 months) and that is a huge amount of time and capacity taken out of driving the business forward to do that. We would have benefited from 3-4 years of funding at a time. This is where I believe Government can contribute by using innovation budgets to help derisk venture capital rather than tie it up in small grants burdened with process and reporting that are of no use to time and resource poor scale-ups. Obviously public money needs to be well managed, but the British Business Bank is one example of a government backed institution with the capabilities and knowledge to engage with venture capital funds in support of Government’s strategic priorities. Disruptive technology businesses need to be better understood and supported as they seek to realise value for shareholders and deliver great products that bring jobs and prosperity to the UK economy.

With the Industrial Strategy about to be published I also hope we will see a stronger focus on talent and a holistic view to developing the skills to create new technologies. We need more scientists! And by that, I mean people who understand both science from first principles and the system context into which that knowledge is applied. We need technology education that doesn’t just focus on utilising pre-structured tools and applications. Artificial Intelligence is a great example of that. We won’t see innovation and new technology developed here if we don’t understand the basics.

We also need more success stories and more technology champions for the UK. To realise those successes, we need to recognise and get behind exceptional scientists, technologies, and business leaders. We need to back those potential champions, accepting and embracing the reality that many will fail along the way - something that seems an anathema to UK culture. We are proud to have developed our technology here in the UK at MIRA Tech Park, and we hope that will inspire others to do the same. My hope is that our success here will encourage others to follow.