ROLI, maker of the Seaboard, enters administration again with orders unfulfilled
ROLI, the east London maker of the Seaboard keyboard, is in administration again: RSM UK partners Damian Webb and Joe Barry took over Luminary Roli Limited as administrators on 20 October, and buyers still waiting for instruments or refunds have had no public word on either.
According to the Gazette notice, two administrators from RSM UK Restructuring Advisory, Damian Webb and Joe Barry, have run Luminary Roli Limited since 20 October, under High Court case CR-2026-008143. The company told customers by email on 2 November, MusicTech reported, citing Wired. ROLI has been here before: it first went into administration in 2021 and came back as Luminary Roli.
Musicians on Reddit and other forums say they paid hundreds or thousands of dollars for Airwave units and other ROLI products that never shipped, according to MusicTech, and one buyer said an order from October 2025 is still outstanding. The ROLI website and its Discord server have been taken down and nothing is on sale. Owners worry that instruments which rely on ROLI's companion apps will stop working properly once updates end, and some have set up an open-source group to keep them running. Neither the company nor the administrators have said what happens to unshipped orders, refunds or software support.
The same two RSM partners were appointed on 19 October to Ultraleap, the Bristol hand-tracking firm ROLI bought late last year, BusinessCloud reported. In a statement on Ultraleap, the administrators said a solvent deal could not be reached in the time available and that they were concentrating on protecting the assets. Founder Roland Lamb was reportedly pushed out of ROLI this year; BusinessCloud says he is listed as founder of Instrumental Intelligence, a company thought to be trying to buy ROLI's assets.
How many people still work at ROLI is not known. MusicTech said there were rumours of redundancies in October, and the company did not answer its questions.
Why it matters: Buyers who paid ROLI for instruments that never arrived have heard nothing about refunds, and owners of Seaboard, Blocks, Lumi and Airwave gear do not know whether the software their instruments depend on will keep running.
If this affects you
- Luminary Roli Limited has been in administration since 20 October 2026, with RSM UK Restructuring Advisory partners Damian Webb and Joe Barry in charge (High Court case CR-2026-008143); the notice names Samir Akram of RSM as case manager. thegazette.co.uk
- Companies House lists Luminary Roli Limited, company number 13407346, registered at Stean Street in London E8, as in administration. find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk
- In the UK, a credit card purchase costing over £100 and up to £30,000 is covered by section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if the goods are not supplied, according to the government-backed MoneyHelper service. moneyhelper.org.uk
- MoneyHelper says debit, credit and prepaid card payments can also be disputed through the Visa, Mastercard and American Express chargeback scheme, normally within 120 days. moneyhelper.org.uk
Sources
- ROLI, the innovative company specialising in touch-sensitive electronic instruments, has entered administrationMusicTech, Nov 5
- Ultraleap & Roli both crash into administrationBusinessCloud, Nov 9