Co-founder of Plus 8 the record label, Richie Hawtin and John Aquivava along with board members Pete Tong and Ben Turner (International Music Summit, manager of Richie Hawtin) have launched the Plus Eight Equity investment fund based on “artist-driven community-based investing” in music technology.”
Co-founder Rishi Patel told Billboard:
“The fund interacts with the market in very specific ways. We’re not growth equity investors, we’re not angel investors. We’re post-proof-of-concept investors: here’s what you can do to make it better, make it cheaper. Here’s how to bring it to the market.”
We’re like A&R guys at the label,” he continues, “except instead of evaluating music demos, we evaluate business plans. There’s a lot of bulls–t you have to go through to find that hit, but with our experience, we know a hit when we see one.”
Of 350 companies analyzed, so far Plus Eight has just moved forward with 8 (how appropriate!). One of the products furthest along in the process is the Subpac, a light backpack one wears to accentuate feeling the bass in your body. We at EDM Life have demoed this product before and it indeed does live up to its description.
