Sonic Academy – A sound first investment for the Invest Growth Fund

August 2009

Sonic Academy has become the first investment for the newly launched £5m Invest Growth Fund, just one of the funds which makes up the £8m suite of initiatives which was launched on 2nd July 2009 at Stormont.

The Belfast based company combines existing delivery of training to local clients with a new web portal for anyone interested in music technology. It offers high quality video tutorials and resources, features, news and reviews as well as an online community where knowledge can be shared among music enthusiasts. Sonic has received a total investment of £150,000. This comprised of £100,000 provided by the Invest Growth Fund (funded by Invest Northern Ireland); and a further £50,000 from a Northern Ireland business angel.

The deal involved the merger of the web portal activities of Music Create Online Ltd into the existing business and Sonic Music Services Ltd to form a new combined business going forward. The investment was in Sonic Music Services Ltd. The money will be used to enable Sonic to strengthen and develop the web based business as well as to support the growth strategy of the existing offline business.

Speaking about plans for the future of Sonic Music Services Ltd, Kevin Traynor, Managing Director said: "Unlocking this investment means that the Sonic team can move quickly to exploit the significant demand for new content from our rapidly expanding customer base. Having this mix of investment also strengthens our management capabilities considerably and opens up a new level of networking for us".

The Invest Growth Fund was launched in July 2009 and this is its first investment. It is administered by London-based fund manager E-Synergy Ltd, from their offices in Belfast. One of E-Synergy’s founding directors, Richard Brook, who led the deal, commented "This is an exciting start to the activities of the Invest Growth Fund in Northern Ireland. We look forward to an increasing flow of high quality deals and to being able to bring support to enterprising companies in Northern Ireland like Sonic."

For further details about the financial services that are available to businesses through the NISPO suite visit www.nispofunds.com.

ENDS

For further details about this press release, please contact Leigh Dixon at
l.dixon@e-synergy.com

Notes to Editors:

About E-Synergy Ltd

E-Synergy was founded in 1999 by four technology entrepreneurs as an independent venture capital firm focusing on early stage investments. Ten years on the Company now has an office in London, Silverstone, Nottingham and Belfast.

About Sonic Academy

Currently SonicAcademy.com is a music education and social web portal for the "i-generation". Whether you are a guitar player or DJ, SonicAcademy.com is the "go to" destination for music makers all over the world.

Using inexpensive and widely available technology, and with the right tuition, almost anybody can now achieve professional sound quality and can record and release their own music for public consumption to global audiences

Sonic Academy reached it first birthday a few weeks ago made possible with the thousands of subscribers and registered users from all over the world. Working in collaboration with many of the industry’s leading software producers and equipment manufacturers like Ableton and M-Audio the Sonic recording studio produces all of its content in-house.

The testimonials from professional music producers to home enthusiasts on the Sonic forums tells the story. Anyone interested in music can benefit from learning through bite size training modules.

For additional information about Sonic Academy, please visit www.sonicacademy.com