Cleveland-based Sonic Fire Tech has closed a $15 million seed round led by The O.H.I.O. Fund with participation from Khosla Ventures to accelerate certification and scale U.S. manufacturing of its waterless acoustic fire suppression systems.
The company said the new capital will fund certification testing and ramp production of systems that use infrasound—low-frequency sound waves below human hearing—to disrupt combustion without water or chemical agents. Sonic Fire Tech previously announced an initial $3.5 million in seed capital in October 2025.
Acoustic fire suppression: shifting focus to interior use cases
Sonic Fire Tech has repositioned its commercial focus from wildfire defense toward homes, lithium-ion battery installations and commercial properties after demonstrations to fire service professionals, insurers and code agencies. “Our live demos of the technology for fire service professionals, insurers, and code agencies delivered a clear path to achieving an alternative means and methods validation for interior use cases,” said Remington Hotchkis, the company’s chief commercialization officer.
The company is concentrating on commercial kitchens, data centers and other environments where water or chemical suppression agents can cause as much damage as the fire itself. Wildfire work continues on a separate track: the company said a portable acoustic suppression backpack will be evaluated with California and other fire agencies to assess how it can support first responders.
Certification, testing and deployment plans
Sonic Fire Tech is undergoing UL validation testing for its Home Defense system and additional testing intended to establish the product as a code-compliant alternative to residential sprinklers. The company said third-party fire protection engineers have conducted tests showing performance equivalent to National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 13D residential sprinkler standards, but it did not identify the engineering firms involved. Local fire officials would still need to approve individual installations.
The company’s most visible residential project to date is a 3D-printed home under construction by PCI Builders in Altadena, California, inside the Eaton Fire burn zone. Sonic Fire Tech said more than 50 additional installations are planned for 2026 across multiple states as pilot use cases aligned with its UL testing.
Manufacturing and Cleveland operations
Co-founder and CEO Geoff Bruder, a former NASA engineer, assembled a team including colleagues from his time at the agency and from Ghost Works Engineering. Sonic Fire Tech and the NASA Glenn Research Center are both headquartered in Cleveland; Hotchkis described the relationship as one of geographic proximity rather than a formal research partnership.
The Cleveland operation employs 10 people. Systems are built at the company’s headquarters, and Sonic Fire Tech plans to expand its Cleveland engineering and manufacturing team as it advances certification and scales for full commercial production. The company said it will scale U.S. production in Ohio and through Ohio-based suppliers while working with licensed distributors, installers and builders nationally.
Investors and market context
The O.H.I.O. Fund said its partners Jeffrey Stern and Ray Leach met Bruder early and have watched the technology move from research toward a validated, field-deployable product. “Acoustic fire suppression has been validated for decades, including by DARPA, but no one had solved the harder problem of turning that science into something field-deployable until Geoff and his team did,” the fund said. The fund added that, based on its reading of the market, no incumbent fire suppression company is pursuing an acoustic approach.
Ohio’s manufacturing ecosystem factored into the fund’s investment thesis. The O.H.I.O. Fund has deployed capital into 33 investments to date.
The financing was described by the announcement as one of the largest seed rounds in Ohio history. The fund pointed to PitchBook data covering 982 completed Ohio seed rounds since 1989, noting four Ohio-headquartered companies that raised larger seed financings: Erebor Bank ($635 million), Niobium Microsystems ($35.85 million), Fello ($25 million) and Strive ($20 million). Sonic Fire Tech’s total matches a $15 million seed round raised in 2026 by 1872, another O.H.I.O. Fund portfolio company.
