Aodyo was a small company based in Lille, France that made “novel electronic instruments.” Their most “novel” creation to date was the Sylphyo, a kind of electronic wind instrument that looks like a cross between a soprano sax and a space age vape.
In the synth world Aodyo was best known for the Anyma Phi, a small and inexpensive piece of hardware. The Anyma Phi was funded by a Kickstarter in late 2020 that raised €67,650 and began shipping in 2021. It’s a real product that is available from European retailers like Thomann as well as direct from Aodyo’s online store.
In 2022, Aodyo announced a new synthesizer, the Anyma Omega. Early sales and development were supported by a Kickstarter campaign which concluded on December 15 2022.
This campaign was wildly successful. From Kickstarter alone, Aodyo earned the support of 228 backers who pledged a total of €218,498 — an eye-watering average of €958 from each supporter.
While the Anyma Omega was still in development, Aodyo launched still another Kickstarter for a product called “Loom.” This “multidimensional MPE MIDI controller” that could “turn your touch into music just like a real instrument” was announced in early 2024 and a new Kickstarter campaign was fully funded less than 48 hours after launch. A total of 459 backers pledged €160,554 for the Loom on Kickstarter alone (orders were also taken via a separate IndieGoGo page. The company later stated that it raised a total of €319,383 for Omega and €177,833 for Loom.)
Neither the Anyma Omega nor the Loom were delivered to backers. From information in an alarming update shared with backers in late September, neither product entered production at all. And Aodyo was scrambling to find an investor to bail out the company while skating on the edge of insolvency.
According Aodyo, Loom languished due to “production costs and delays” that turned out to be “much higher than we initially anticipated. Due to extended lead times for the electronic components from our manufacturer, we have been unable to launch production.”
But it appears the Anyma Omega was the greater problem. Funding for the synth closed nearly two years ago; Aodyo initially stated that development and production would take about six months. At the time the Kickstarter was launched, delivery to backers was tentatively scheduled for June 2023.
When raising funds via Kickstarter, Aodyo posted videos of “already functional” prototypes of the Anyma Omega and stated the sound engine had undergone “thorough testing.” Funds raised via Kickstarter, they stated, would pay for “the final software development and production phase.”
It appears the Omega never advanced from that “final” stage. The synthesizer, the company later stated, turned out to be too good for its own good:
“Over the last few months,” Aodyo said, “we have focused our efforts on finding potential investors or buyers to help us unlock the situation. Unfortunately, we have not been successful so far.”
Without new investments or partnerships in the “coming weeks,” Aodyo warned, “we will be left with no other choice but to file for bankruptcy.”
Bizarrely, Aodyo hoped that this alarming update, which caused a state of panic among the company’s supporters, “might spark new opportunities.” Instead, a month later, the company announced it was in liquidation.
Between the two updates, the company stated they had been selling off discounted inventory of their existing products to stay afloat. And since the funds raised by Kickstarter for the Omega and the Loom had been used “entirely” on those products, “we regret to inform you that a refund of your contributions is unfortunately impossible at this stage.”
These updates are public, though only backers can comment. Quite a few of them are questioning why a company that spent “the last few months” scrambling to find an investor to avoid bankruptcy would launch a second Kickstarter for an entirely new product just a few months earlier.
Don't Stay In 
Get on our guest list for news from 5 Mag and you'll never miss a thing. It's free and we don't sell your shit. 
And after sailing past the shipping date for a product mired in developmental hell, why would a company which claimed to have only “a team of 6 people” launch a whole new product line?
For the backers, this seems to boil down to the question of what did Aodyo know, and when did they know it?
(Backers have gotten something for their pledges so far — a plug-in called Anyma V, created as a byproduct of “stress-testing” the code in the Omega’s synthesis engine, which was delivered in July.)
In what has become the company’s final statement, Aodyo claimed they were “on the verge” of acquiring investment but ultimately ran out of time. The company also confirmed that the suspicious timing of the Kickstarter for Loom was an attempt to create a “quick fix” for the company’s problems delivering the Anyma Omega synth. The goal was to “generate enough revenue to ensure the company’s sustainability” by introducing a new product that could be sold quickly and fund the floundering Omega development. Loom, however — stop if this sounds familiar — cost them more than they expected and took longer than they had.
Instead of creating the way out of a trap, Aodyo now had two products they couldn’t deliver.
As for the timing, the state of affairs at Aodyo suggests a vivid manifestation of Hemingway’s famous description of how a company goes bankrupt:
That’s at least plausible. What does seem implausible is the notion that an investor would front the cash in reasonable terms (loan sharks are a thing, after all) for a company with a small team, a small product line, a dwindling inventory they’re kicking out the door to pay the rent and the looming liability of two unfinished products funded with hundreds of thousands in upfront cash, the most prominent of which didn’t seem close to completion.
o o o
There are creators who have built solid and successful companies on the back of crowdsourcing. There are also cautionary tales of campaigns that raised gobs of money for what were presented as nearly-finished products and failed to deliver. Aodyo appeared to be the first, until it fell from grace into the second category. It’s not exactly uncommon for this to happen, to the point that Kickstarter itself even hosts a directory of experts and consultants who can help wayward campaigns set reasonable goals and attain them.
Aodyo is now in liquidation, possibly to be stripped for parts to pay their creditors. There is no illusion of a clean bankruptcy to restart production. It was an avoidable fiasco for a company which, finding itself sinking, screwed over a few more people on the way down — music lovers that advanced hundreds of thousands of dollars upfront for magical products and have a plugin they never asked for to show for it.
5 Mag Issue 217
Out Now
HOUSE OF FOUK: Originally published in 5 Mag Issue #217 featuring Dutch deep house DJ and production duo Fouk, Paris Cesvette, Azaad, Thando and more. Become a member for $2/month and get every issue in your inbox right now…
[…] Fuse: Dollars & Synths. After raising hundreds of thousands of dollars via Kickstarter, French synth maker Aodyo has […]