Sarah Nicolls

First Light Pianos

Sarah Nicolls is a radical, called “edgy Brit” by The Guardian, featured on BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live and Front Row, and shortlisted for the Great British Entrepreneur “Innovation” award. As a concert pianist, she won international fame premiering new classical works and pioneering new sounds with a PhD in wearable tech before deciding the piano needed a wholesale reinvention. Her company, First Light Pianos, has replaced 200-year-old cast iron with carbon fibre for a space-saving, lightweight vertical grand piano that enables new music through unique access to the strings, developed with structural engineers Atelier One and Formula 1 manufacturers. She has won multiple awards from Innovate UK including Women in Innovation and is now closing a seed round.