Enote wants musicians to stop carrying, marking up and turning printed scores by hand. Enote, a Berlin company co-founded by the conductor Boian Videnoff, uses AI-based optical music recognition to convert these scores into a digital format that can be resized, transposed, annotated and played back on a tablet or computer.
The European Innovation Council granted €1,950,597 towards a €2.86 million project that ran from April 2022 to March 2023. In April 2023 Enote closed a €10 million pre-Series A with DvH Ventures, the EIC Fund and the Rudolf Fuchs Family Office, reporting more than 70,000 musicians on its app. Its blog and press page stop soon after, but German register data show new share capital in 2024 and 2025.
Company file
- Legal entity
- Enote GmbH, HRB 195148 B, Amtsgericht Charlottenburg, Berlin
- Registered
- April 2018
- Co-founder
- Boian Videnoff, conductor
- Product
- Enote app for iPad, iPhone and macOS; digital score library
- Technology
- Optical music recognition, transcription, audio synthesis
- Investors
- DvH Ventures, EIC Fund, Rudolf Fuchs Family Office
- EIC project
- Enote, 1 Apr 2022 to 31 Mar 2023, closed
- EIC funding
- Blended finance
Where Enote Stands Today
Enote's website offers the app free to try, lists "thousands of works from the baroque to late romantic era", and says vocal, orchestral and stage works are coming. Its about page describes 50 employees from 23 countries in Berlin. The company's blog ends in May 2023, when it made importing users' own scores free. German register data compiled by North Data show the company active, with share capital increases in September 2024 and December 2025, and a state aid award for research tax incentives in July 2026.
The Technology: Reading the Notes
Optical music recognition is to scores what text recognition is to books. According to the CORDIS report, the project advanced Enote's "advanced OMR models", produced printed editions and built "smart annotation tools". The company's blog describes additions of more than 1,000 vocal works, almost 3,000 guitar works and 200 major concert works during 2022.
"Thanks to our investment, Enote is able to continue preserving European cultural heritage."
Hermann Hauser, EIC Fund, April 2023What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows
The project promised to bring "sheet music into the digital era via artificial intelligence". It lasted 12 months. CORDIS describes the model, edition and annotation work but gives no figures for scores digitised, users, subscribers or revenue.
- AI score digitisationDeliveredOMR models; growing library.
- A usable appDeliverediOS and macOS; 70,000+ users in 2023.
- Follow-on capitalDelivered€10M with the EIC Fund.
- Paying subscribers at scaleNot shownNo figures since 2023.
What Has Happened Since the Award
The Money
The award was blended finance, and the EIC Fund invested in the April 2023 round alongside DvH Ventures and the Rudolf Fuchs Family Office. The register shows share capital increases in 2024 and 2025; no round has been announced. Enote's accounts were not accessible for this article.
What cannot be checked
How many people use and pay for Enote today, its revenue, how much the EIC Fund invested and what the 2024 and 2025 capital increases raised are not public.
Why Europe Should Care
The EIC Fund framed its investment as preserving European cultural heritage. Digitising the classical repertoire into an open, flexible format is a public good as much as a product. Whether Enote can make it pay is a question its public record has not answered since 2023.
What the project promised
Sheet music brought into the digital era through artificial intelligence.
What the record shows
A working app, 70,000+ users in 2023, €10M raised and continuing capital increases; no recent metrics.
The Verdict
Built and backed, now quiet
The short EIC project fed into a product with real users and a €10 million round in which the EIC Fund took part. Since then Enote has gone quiet in public while its investors keep adding capital. Its user and revenue figures would show whether that faith is justified.
Enote has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on company statements, EU project data and German register information, linked throughout.
