Over two years ago now, we reported that 3D audio company Ossic had raised a massive $2.7 million in crowdfunding for a pair of headphones designed for use with VR headsets. At the time, that made it the highest-earning Kickstarter campaign in the platform’s history. Yesterday, Ossic announced it was shutting down operations and canceling pre-orders.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we must inform you that OSSIC is shutting down and will be unable to deliver the remaining OSSIC X headphones,” the company wrote in an update on its website. According to the post, Ossic failed to raise enough investment to bring the X into full mass production. The company was looking to raise a further $2+ million.
The Ossic X was designed to deliver true 3D audio across a range of platforms including VR. The Kickstarter page promised ‘The World’s Most Advanced 3D Audio Headphone’ which could recreate sound in the same way we perceive it in the real world. We were impressed by the headphones when we tried them in February 2016.
According to Ossic, VR’s “slow start” and other startup failures made it tough to find further funding for the product, while the scope of the project ultimately made it too costly. During the Kickstarter campaign, the X could be pre-ordered for $199 at an Early Bird discount that shaved $200 off of intended $399 price. 80 backers had also pledged at least $999 in order to grab an early, hand-built version of the device.
But Ossic’s funding didn’t stop at Kickstarter. The company later raised a further $515,000 and yet more pre-orders on IndieGoGo and then secured even more funding through an angel investment round. This allowed the team to ship those 80 initial units to the highest backers, but the other 22,000+ pre-orders will go unfulfilled. Ossic’s post doesn’t mention refunds, though given that the company is, in its own words, out of money, it doesn’t look likely. We’ve reached out to the company to ask about that possibility.
“We will forever be grateful to you and the team members, investors, and business partners who believed in us and helped give our dream a fighting chance,” Ossic concluded. “We were able to achieve some amazing things in an industry that was, and still is, ripe for innovation. Your voice of support throughout these past 2 years will continue to bring change to the industry, as bigger players than us refocus their efforts into better, smarter, and more immersive audio.”
Correction: A previous version of this post had an incorrect amount for how much Ossic raised on Indiegogo.
