From Beeps to Big Exit: The Chirp.io Story

When Sonos acquired Chirp.io in 2020, it marked the end of a remarkable journey for a scrappy British startup that had spent nearly a decade teaching machines to sing. As someone who served as VP of Engineering before  stepping into the COO, I had a front-row seat to this remarkable adventure.

Chirp's core innovation was deceptively simple. We developed technology that could transmit data between devices using audio signals - essentially digital birdsong. Our software could turn any device with a speaker and microphone into a data transmission point, no wireless connectivity required. While this might sound like a solution in search of a problem, we were actually riding three massive converging trends: the explosion of IoT devices, the rise of voice assistants, and the continuing proliferation of mobile devices.

What set us apart was our deep technical foundation. We built cross-platform SDKs that worked across everything from iOS to embedded systems, backed by 12 international patents. This wasn't just clever engineering - it was real deep tech, born from research at University College London.

And my word, did we get to work on some fantastic projects! We helped bring Activision's Skylanders Imaginators to life, enabling kids to transfer their created characters from TV to mobile without any faffy account setup or wifi connections. The Emmy Award-winning Netflix series Beat Bugs came knocking too, where we got toys singing in perfect sync with the show - all running on a tiny ARM Cortex-M4 processor and happening completely offline too! Managing to squeeze our audio recognition technology onto such a low-powered chip was quite the technical achievement.

In India, we transformed how thousands of commuters validated their bus tickets with Shuttl. No scanning equipment needed, just elegant sound-based verification that worked brilliantly even with flaky internet connections and older phones. We even had projects with giants like Microsoft and JD.com.

Despite all these impressive commercial applications, my personal favourite part of the journey was seeing what people would build with the tech. From hackathon winners creating clever solutions overnight to hobbyists building homemade smart home systems to students designing interactive art installations, the creativity our platform unleashed was endlessly fascinating. It's one thing to build technology; it's another entirely to watch others take it in directions you'd never imagined.

But perhaps our proudest achievement was the work we did with EDF Energy in their nuclear power stations. Now, there's a sentence I never thought I'd write! Nuclear facilities are incredibly restrictive when it comes to wireless communications - you can't just whack in some WiFi or Bluetooth and call it a day. Thanks to an Innovate UK grant, we developed a system that could transmit sensor data across a distance of 50 metres using nothing but sound waves, working perfectly even with background noise levels of 98dB (that's about as loud as a motorcycle, for reference). The best part? We achieved 100% data reliability during the 16-hour test period. Not too shabby for some acoustic wizardry!

This wasn't just about replacing cables either. The cost of installing traditional wired networks in industrial plants can run from hundreds to thousands of dollars per foot. Our technology offered a way to dramatically reduce these costs while maintaining the strict safety standards required in such environments.

It was this project that actually sparked my interest in the energy sector and eventually led me to found my current startup PF Nexus, but that's a story for another day.

Looking back, what makes me most proud is how this small team from London, born out of research at University College London, managed to punch well above its weight on the global stage. We weren't just competing; we were leading in our field, with a technology stack that worked across everything from ARM chips to Android phones, from factory floors to children's toys.

While similar American startups were raising tens of millions, we were making every pound count. We built a world-class team of audio engineers and researchers who could go toe-to-toe with anyone in Silicon Valley, all while maintaining that quintessentially British approach of understated excellence.

The original Chirp team

The acquisition by Sonos felt like a fitting final chapter. Here was a company that really understood audio technology and could see the potential in what we'd built. While I can't discuss the details of the acquisition, I can say that it validated our belief that sound-based data transmission had a significant role to play in the future of connected devices. 

The Chirp story shows that you don't need Silicon Valley-sized funding rounds to build something genuinely innovative. Sometimes all you need is a clever idea, solid technology, and a team that's not afraid to think differently. Not bad for a startup that began by trying to make phones chirp at each other like digital birds.