Posted Oct 3, 2022, 8:30 AM
Improve hearing well-being. Driven by this ambition, the Grenoble-based start-up Attitud has just raised 300,000 euros to launch its first “free ear” headphones in France and Germany. This new version of his invention is launched jointly in the United States where a first model has already been launched in 2021 and has sold 3,500 copies. “The initial idea was to find a more natural listening, by not subjecting the eardrum to any pressure”, recalls Nelly Martin, general manager of Attitud.
This professional engineer co-founded this start-up in 2016 with an otolaryngologist (ENT) doctor. “We first looked at bone conduction of sound, but we didn’t want the unpleasant feeling of vibration. So we branched off to directional air conduction. Clearly: a loudspeaker is placed between 12 and 20 millimeters from the ear, depending on the version, and directed towards it with a moderate volume of 85 decibels.
American market
This R&D stage was followed by an industrialization phase which culminated in the presentation of the product at the 2021 edition of the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas – in digital-only mode, due to the pandemic – but also in its distribution on the American market. “It was an opportunity but also a choice to sell more easily, the United States being more avant-garde”, supports Nelly Martin.
On the strength of this experience, Attitud launched the production of 4,000 EarCITY headphones, an improved version of the product previously sold across the Atlantic, as well as an EarSport version, dedicated to the practice of physical activity. The company intends to take advantage of this to grow: it aims to reach a turnover of 700,000 euros in June 2023 (35,000 euros last year) and several million from 2024.
The company also wishes to expand into new territories. After the United States, then France and Germany this fall, it is aiming for distribution in the Baltic countries, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Malta in the first quarter of 2023. The team, which has a third person since this year, still needs to strengthen in terms of sales and communication.
Technology
attitude
Creation date : 2016
Executive Director : Nelly Martin
Effective : 3 people
Sector: sound
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