Phononic Vibes Raises €25 Million to Scale Metamaterial Noise Control

Milan-based Phononic Vibes has closed a €25 million financing round to scale noise and vibration technology already certified by Deutsche Bahn and running in Mercedes-Benz series production. The company announced the round alongside a new corporate identity and website.

Jolt Capital, the Paris private equity firm specialising in DeepTech growth companies, led the round through Jolt Capital V, a fund targeting €1 billion and nearing final close. Eureka! Venture SGR, CDP Venture Capital SGR and Simest SpA also participated. The transaction includes the buyout of 360 Capital's stake, held since the Seed round. For context, the company's last announced raise was €2.3 million in 2020 — the new round is roughly eleven times that size.

Andrea Traversone, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, framed the deal as a physics story: "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."

What does the company actually make?

Phononic Vibes, founded in 2018 by Luca D'Alessandro, Giovanni Capellari and Stefano Caverni as a spin-off of Politecnico di Milano, builds noise and vibration products for rail, energy, industry, construction and mobility. It manufactures in Italy and leads a group of established European manufacturers, including Matis, founded in 1979.

The core claim is simple and disruptive. Every noise barrier, enclosure and silencer on the market obeys the mass law, according to the company: more quiet means more material. Phononic Vibes claims to break it. It designs metamaterials — structures whose shape does the work that mass used to do. The result: products that weigh up to 30% less while delivering the same acoustic performance, or perform better at the same weight.

The commercial evidence is concrete:

• Deutsche Bahn certified the company's transparent noise barrier for the German rail network — the first see-through panel the operator rates as highly absorbing.
• Mercedes-Benz uses the technology in series production, which Phononic Vibes says is the first metamaterial in a series-production car.
• Contractors such as Webuild and Eteria choose its barriers because they install faster.

At the centre 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, so each new market starts from proven designs rather than a blank sheet," the company said in its press release.

What does this change for the business?

The financial track record matters as much as the technology. Revenue has doubled every year since 2018, and the company reached break-even in 2025. That means the €25 million is growth capital for a company already covering its costs — not a lifeline.

CEO and co-founder Luca D'Alessandro 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 capital plan has three legs: scale the design engine internationally, expand into new applications, and strengthen delivery capabilities. Phononic Vibes also flags targeted acquisitions as part of the strategy, extending the technology's reach and adding industrial capacity to the group.

For infrastructure buyers and automakers, the signal is that lighter noise control is moving from lab demos to procurement catalogues — with two of Europe's toughest validators already on board. Expect data centres to be the next battleground D'Alessandro names in his targets.