This Milan Startup Just Raised $27M to Make Quiet Lighter

Jan de Vries · 2026-10-23

What if silence didn't have to weigh a ton? That's the question a small Milan company has been quietly answering since 2018 — and now it has $27 million to prove the point at scale. Phononic Vibes, which designs and manufactures noise and vibration products for rail, energy, industry, construction, and mobility, just closed a €25 million round. In dollar terms, that's roughly $27 million. The company also rolled out a fresh identity and website to mark the moment. ### Who's Backing the Quiet Revolution The round was led by Jolt Capital, a Paris-based private equity firm focused on DeepTech growth companies. It came through Jolt Capital V, a fund targeting €1 billion and nearing its final close. Eureka! Venture SGR, CDP Venture Capital SGR, and Simest SpA also joined in. The deal includes the acquisition of 360 Capital's stake, which it has held since the company's seed round. For context, Phononic Vibes raised just €2.3 million back in 2020 — so this is a serious step up. > "Noise control is reaching a turning point," said Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital. "Conventional products have hit their physical limit, and infrastructure needs quieter assets with less weight and space." He called the company a rare mix of breakthrough science, a patented design engine, and manufacturing at scale. It's also Jolt Capital V's first investment in Italy. ### The Science: Less Mass, Same Quiet Here's the problem the company is attacking. Every noise barrier, enclosure, and silencer on the market obeys the mass law: more quiet means more material. Want a quieter train line? Add weight. Want a quieter factory? Add bulk. Phononic Vibes claims to break that law. It designs metamaterials — structures whose shape does the work mass used to do. The result? Products that weigh up to 30% less while delivering the same acoustic performance. Or, if you keep the weight the same, they simply perform better. At the core sits a proprietary design engine protected by 18 patent families. It turns the physics of metamaterials into certified products, drawing on application libraries that grow with every project. Each new market starts from proven designs rather than a blank sheet. ### The Customers Doing the Talking The proof is in the partnerships, and they're not small names: - **Deutsche Bahn** certified the company's transparent noise barrier for the German rail network — the first see-through panel it rates as highly absorbing. - **Mercedes-Benz** uses the 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, and the company reached break-even in 2025. Not bad for a spin-off from Politecnico di Milano founded by Luca D'Alessandro, Giovanni Capellari, and Stefano Caverni. It manufactures in Italy and leads a group of established European manufacturers, including Matis, founded in 1979. ### What Happens Next "Weight has always been the price of quiet," said D'Alessandro, the CEO and co-founder. "We have shown it is a design choice, with two of Europe's most demanding customers." With the new capital, the company plans to scale its design engine internationally, push into new applications, and strengthen delivery. Targeted acquisitions will round out the strategy, extending the technology's reach and adding industrial capabilities. The bigger bet? Making lighter noise control the standard across data centers, rail, energy, and industry. If that happens, the days of solving noise with sheer mass may be numbered.