“We built everything from the ground up. Most of this stuff has never been done by anyone else, and nobody else is trying to do it either,” says Helmuts Bems, co-founder of Sonarworks, a Latvian audio tech company on a mission to bridge the gap between sound creators and listeners. “Essentially we make sound personal,” Helmuts adds. “It’s about using data technology and machine-learning to better understand the end-user and tailor the sound accordingly. Within minutes, we will find a better sound for 82% of people.”

Such individual preferences are related to factors like age (hearing loss), gender (men typically have larger ear canals), geography or music taste. The company’s patented data-driven technology benefits a range of sectors, from sound engineers, artists, producers, creators and other professionals to the consumer-side, like manufacturers of electronic devices. “A bit like Intel Inside,” Helmuts explains. “Today, over 70,000 recording studios globally and 100,000 consumers use our technology. But we’re expecting a lot of growth in the consumer space, with contracts for over 1 million devices already signed.”