Milan's Phononic Vibes Raises $27M to Quiet the World

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-23

Phononic Vibes, a Milan-based company that designs and manufactures noise and vibration products for rail, energy, industry, construction, and mobility, just closed a €25 million ($27 million) financing round. The company also launched a new identity and website. It's a big step for a startup that spun out of Politecnico di Milano in 2018. The round was led by Jolt Capital, a Paris-based private equity firm that focuses on DeepTech growth companies, through its Jolt Capital V fund, which is targeting €1 billion ($1.08 billion) and nearing its final close. Eureka! Venture SGR, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Simest SpA also participated. As part of the deal, 360 Capital's stake, held since the seed round, was acquired. Back in 2020, the company raised a €2.3 million ($2.5 million) round. Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, said, "Noise control is reaching a turning point. Conventional products have hit their physical limit, and infrastructure needs quieter assets with less weight and space. Phononic Vibes is a company combining breakthrough science, a patented design engine and manufacturing at scale. We are excited to back the team in building a global leader in noise and vibration control. This is Jolt Capital V's first investment in Italy, a country with an increasingly dynamic and vibrant deeptech ecosystem." ### Breaking the Mass Law with Metamaterials Founded by Luca D'Alessandro, Giovanni Capellari, and Stefano Caverni, Phononic Vibes manufactures in Italy and leads a group of established European manufacturers, including Matis, founded in 1979. The company's core innovation is metamaterials—structures whose shape does the work that mass used to do. According to the company, every noise barrier, enclosure, and silencer on the market obeys the mass law: more quiet means more material. Phononic Vibes claims to break it. Its products weigh up to 30% less while delivering the same acoustic performance, or they perform better at the same weight. At the heart of the company is a proprietary design engine, protected by 18 patent families. As the company explains, "It turns the physics of metamaterials into certified products, drawing on application libraries that grow with every project, so each new market starts from proven designs rather than a blank sheet." ### Proven in the Real World Phononic Vibes isn't just theory. Deutsche Bahn certified its transparent noise barrier for the German rail network—the first see-through panel rated as highly absorbing. Mercedes-Benz uses its technology in series production, which the company says is the first metamaterial in a series-production car. Contractors like Webuild and Eteria choose its barriers because they install faster. Revenue has doubled every year since 2018, reaching break-even in 2025. Luca D'Alessandro, CEO and co-founder, said, "Weight has always been the price of quiet. We have shown it is a design choice, with two of Europe's most demanding customers. With Jolt Capital by our side in this new chapter, and the continued support of our existing investors Eureka! Venture SGR, CDP Venture Capital and Simest, we can accelerate our international growth, expand into new applications and make lighter noise control the standard across data centres, rail, energy and industry. I would also like to thank 360 Capital for believing in us from the early days, when we were still working at the desks of Politecnico di Milano, and for being part of the journey that brought us here." The company plans to use the capital to scale its design engine internationally, expand into new applications, and strengthen delivery capabilities. Targeted acquisitions will complement this strategy by extending the reach of its technology and bringing additional industrial capabilities. For US startups watching European deeptech, Phononic Vibes offers a case study in turning university research into certified, revenue-generating products. The message: sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from rethinking the basics—like how to make things quieter without making them heavier.