The Irish arm of Hyph, a tech start-up building a music composition software platform, has seen its accumulated losses rise to €24.1 million after a loss of €12.3 million in 2023.
Hyph was founded by Irish musician Mick Kiely in 2013 to build a music clips library to allow musicians to create full compositions using its software.
Kiely has since left the company after a legal dispute with his former business partners, including senior Swedish executives Max Renard and Anders Thorsell.
The chief executive of the company is Anders Carlsson, who has written hits for Westlife, Britney Spears, Backstreet Boys, Celine Dion, Bon Jovi, Ricky Martin and Jedward. Carlsson has described the platform as a “Lego box for music”.
Is there any tax relief available on cost of caring for our elderly mum?
Cities need to be run in new ways, and not just by officials, or councillors, says former British mayor
Recent deals shine spotlight on Ireland’s buoyant M&A market
Five things we’ve learned about the Irish economy in the last few days
The dispute has led to litigation in several US states and a High Court case in Ireland, where Kiely is seeking €176,000 in unpaid notice pay.
Earlier this year Kiely received what was then a record payout of €464,000 in the Workplace Relations Commission for unfair dismissal.
He has also threatened to sue the company in Sweden, having been told by a court in California that the US state was not the proper jurisdiction for his case.
Meanwhile, the company has continued to build out its library of music clips as it aims to “roll out its core product to the wider market”.
In the most recent accounts for Hyph Ireland, the directors’ report states that the company has “worked intensively to develop the next generation of the platform and has carried out several sub-projects with the aim of finalising the next generation platform for commercial launch”.
The accounts also show that the company is planning a new funding round for later this year.
Hyph Ireland had revenue for the year of €12,216 which came from charges it made to a subsidiary company in the US.
In 2023, the company had expenses of €11.9 million, up from €2.4 million the year before. It spent €5.4 million and was listed as “outsourced technology development”, €1.9 million on “music content consultancy” and €1.2 million was “content expansion”, as it built out its library of music clips for its composition platform. It also had a wage bill of just over €1 million. It also wrote off €1.3 million in bad debts to related companies.
Inheritance tax in Ireland: What are the rules, and could they be changed in the budget?
Its net liabilities exceed its total assets by €17.6 million and the directors note “the existence of a material uncertainty which may cast significant doubt about the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”.
The accounts show that Hyph Ireland had €6.5 million in its share premium account, and it has loans of just over €18 million from related companies in the US, of which €4.8 million came from two US-based companies, and €12.4 million came from Hyph Ireland’s immediate Swedish parent company, Hyph AB.
Accounts published for Hyph AB earlier this year, which are the consolidated financial reports for several European subsidiaries including the Irish entity, show the company had net sales of €664,000 and administrative costs of €12.1 million. Its losses rose in that period to €40.3 million. Financial statements for the US parent company are not publicly available.
- Sign up for Business push alerts and have the best news, analysis and comment delivered directly to your phone
- Join The Irish Times on WhatsApp and stay up to date
- Our Inside Business podcast is published weekly – Find the latest episode here
