Sonexos

Pioneering plasma-based active-noise-control technology for low-frequency sound in real environments.

Website: https://sonexos.com/

Cover Block

Publicly reported

Field Value
Name Sonexos
Tagline Pioneering plasma-based active-noise-control technology for low-frequency sound in real environments.
Headquarters Lausanne, Switzerland [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]
Founded 2022 [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]
Business model Hardware + Software
Industry Deeptech
Technology type Hardware
Geography Western Europe
Growth profile Venture Scale
Founding team Repeat Founder [Startupticker, October 2026]
Funding label Undisclosed
Total disclosed CHF 5 million [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]

Links

Publicly reported

Summary and Signal

PUBLIC Sonexos is a Lausanne-based deeptech company building plasma-based active noise control for low-frequency sound, and it merits investor attention now because it has moved from lab-origin technology into disclosed industrialisation and customer-integration work, with fresh backing from Valquest Partners and Bosch Ventures [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026]. The origin story is unusually crisp by early-stage hardware standards: Sonexos was founded in 2022 around plasma-based sound-absorption research associated with EPFL, which licensed the underlying system to the company and continues to appear in public partnership references tied to the technology’s development [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [Extremetech, retrieved 2026].

The product center is Plasmapanel, a solid-state active acoustic platform intended for integration into appliances, HVAC systems, cooling equipment, and related products, with the company positioning it as a compact alternative to bulky low-frequency absorbers rather than a consumer audio device [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. That differentiation is credible at the level of technical intent, but the commercial proof point remains pre-scale: Sonexos says it is running paid prototype-integration programs with global domestic-appliance and HVAC manufacturers, and its most advanced programs are targeting series production in early 2028 [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026].

The team is one of the stronger parts of the file. CEO Mark Donaldson previously founded SoundChip, which was acquired by DSP Group, while co-founder Ben Skelton also held senior technical and operating roles at SoundChip; Sonexos added Andrea Onetti as COO in May 2025, bringing prior senior manufacturing leadership experience from STMicroelectronics [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] [Sustainable Planet Switzerland, May 2025].

On financing, the company announced a CHF 5 million Pre-Series A in October 2026, led by Valquest Partners with participation from Bosch Ventures, a useful signal for a business that appears to sell as a hardware-plus-software integration platform into OEM product cycles [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. Public materials also point to an industrialisation path through collaboration rather than direct end-market distribution, including a disclosed partnership with Vandewiele Group subsidiary Eutron and a separate cooling-focused collaboration with SIT [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] [The Beacon Journal, July 2026].

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the key watch items are whether prototype programs convert into named production design-ins, whether industrial partners validate manufacturability at commercial quality and cost, and whether the company can show that low-frequency performance in real systems translates into repeatable OEM demand rather than one-off engineering projects [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos, retrieved 2026].

No independent source found -- This section relies materially on company statements and partner-investor announcements, with selective independent corroboration from EPFL, Startupticker, and Crunchbase.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis Value
Business Model Hardware + Software
Industry / Vertical Deeptech
Technology Type Hardware
Geography Western Europe
Growth Profile Venture Scale
Founding Team Repeat Founder
Funding Undisclosed

Company Overview

PUBLIC

Sonexos presents as an EPFL-linked Lausanne company taking a narrow technical problem, low-frequency noise in real equipment, and building a product company around it rather than a research project. The public record supports the basics cleanly: the company was founded in 2022, is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland, and describes Plasmapanel as its core platform for integration into customer products and systems [Sonexos, retrieved 2026].

The milestones that can be stated on company-controlled sources are still early but coherent. Sonexos says EPFL partnered with the company to develop active sound absorbers based on the plasmacoustic metalayer concept, which frames the origin of the technology in academic research rather than a greenfield startup invention [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. By May 2025, the company had appointed Andrea Onetti as Chief Operating Officer to lead operations and commercialization, a notable signal that the work had moved beyond lab validation toward industrialization planning [Sonexos, retrieved 2026].

The next visible step is organizational buildout. Sonexos's careers page in 2026 showed openings across finance, applications engineering, laboratory work, and mechanical product industrialization, which fits a company assembling the functions needed to turn a technical platform into manufacturable customer programs [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. The website also positions the company around strategic advisory and integration support alongside the core hardware platform, suggesting an operating model that mixes technology supply with hands-on customer enablement [Sonexos, retrieved 2026].

No independent source found -- This section relies on company website materials only, with chronology partially corroborated inside Sonexos-owned pages.

The Product and the Stack

Public record plus analysis

The product story is straightforward even if the underlying physics are not. Sonexos is building a solid-state, plasma-based active-noise-control system aimed at low-frequency noise, the part of the spectrum that is often hardest to manage with compact passive materials [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]. Public materials describe the core platform as Plasmapanel, developed for integration into appliances, HVAC equipment, ventilation systems, cooling infrastructure, and related products rather than positioned as a standalone consumer device [Sonexos, retrieved 2026] [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. Bosch Ventures' investment announcement frames the commercial pitch as a compact alternative to bulky low-frequency acoustic absorbers, while EPFL-linked coverage ties the company to plasma-based sound absorption research licensed out of EPFL [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [EPFL] [Extremetech].

The evidence suggests Sonexos is selling an embedded component and integration program, not a finished end-market appliance. Company and partner materials say Sonexos is running paid prototype-integration programmes with global domestic-appliance and HVAC manufacturers, and that its most advanced programmes are targeting series production in early 2028 [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. A January 2026 announcement with Vandewiele Group, through subsidiary Eutron, adds a more concrete industrialisation marker: the parties said they would collaborate to industrialise Plasmapanel and Plasmadrive active-noise-reduction solutions [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026]. Separately, Sonexos and SIT announced a collaboration around low-noise cooling for data centres, energy storage, and industrial cooling, which broadens the visible application set beyond household appliances and building systems [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026].

The technical stack is only partly visible in public. Sonexos says it holds granted and pending patents across plasma-based active absorption, plasma physics, materials, and system integration, and it also advertises advisory work around acoustic benchmarking, system integration, and manufacturing support [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. Job postings add a little texture without proving architecture: openings for applications engineering, electroacoustics lab work, finance leadership, and a senior mechanical engineering consultant focused on product industrialisation imply a company moving from R&D into manufacturable product design and customer deployment (inferred from job postings) [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. What remains less clear from public evidence is measured field performance, power consumption, bill-of-materials profile, and long-term reliability under production conditions, which are the points that will matter most as Sonexos moves from prototype claims to qualified commercial systems.

One source, partially checked -- This section relies on one independent investor announcement, one trade publication, EPFL-linked coverage, and multiple company or partner materials; the existence of the platform and integration work is reasonably supported, but most capability details remain company-led rather than independently benchmarked.

The Market They Are Entering

Publicly reported

Low-frequency noise control is moving from a comfort feature to a design constraint in appliances, HVAC, cooling infrastructure, and industrial systems, which is the part of the market that matters for Sonexos now, because its public positioning is tied to OEM integration rather than a consumer end-product [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos, retrieved 2026].

The available source set does not support a conventional TAM, SAM, SOM build for plasma-based active noise control, and it would be too aggressive to backfill one from adjacent acoustics categories without a named market study. What can be said from public evidence is narrower and more useful: Sonexos is targeting product classes where low-frequency noise is persistent, difficult to suppress with passive materials, and often constrained by size, weight, and airflow requirements, including domestic appliances, HVAC equipment, cooling systems, data centre cooling, battery energy storage cooling, and industrial cooling [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026]. The practical market definition, at least from the evidence on hand, is therefore an OEM components-and-integration opportunity inside existing equipment markets rather than a stand-alone acoustics equipment category [Sonexos, retrieved 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026].

Demand drivers are visible even without a formal market model. Sonexos and its partners repeatedly frame the problem around the trade-off between silence, space, and weight, which matters most in systems where passive absorbers are bulky and where airflow, enclosure volume, or industrial form factor limits make traditional acoustic treatment expensive in practice [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]. The company also points to paid prototype-integration programmes with global domestic-appliance and HVAC manufacturers, and to more advanced programmes targeting series production in early 2028, which suggests buyer interest is linked to design cycles and product refresh windows rather than one-off pilot activity [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026].

Adjacent markets help clarify where the budget could come from. In public materials, Sonexos is not described as competing for broad consumer audio spend, even though its technical roots sit near electroacoustics and active noise control [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [ExtremeTech, retrieved 2026]. Instead, the substitute set appears to be passive low-frequency absorbers, mechanical enclosure redesign, quieter fan and motor components, and conventional active noise control architectures embedded in equipment, particularly where OEMs need compliance with noise expectations without adding excessive bulk [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026]. That framing matters, because it implies Sonexos would likely sell into existing BOM and performance-improvement budgets, not create a new line item from scratch.

Macro and regulatory pressure are present in the background, though the sources here are stronger on industrial logic than on statute. The SIT collaboration is explicitly tied to low-noise cooling for data centres, battery-energy-storage systems, and industrial cooling, all three of which are capacity areas benefiting from broader electrification and compute build-out trends [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026]. On the regulatory side, quieter equipment standards, workplace noise expectations, and urban noise limits are plausible tailwinds, but the reviewed sources do not cite a specific regulation or standard driving current demand, so that point should be treated as directional rather than established. More concretely, Sonexos's public timeline toward industrialisation and series production indicates that the market test is less about whether noise matters and more about whether a plasma-based transducer can be qualified, manufactured, and integrated at OEM scale [AudioXpress, October 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026].

Market lens Public evidence Relevance to Sonexos
Domestic appliances and HVAC Sonexos says it is running paid prototype-integration programmes with global manufacturers in both categories [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] Indicates current buyer discovery is concentrated in large OEM channels
Data centre and energy storage cooling Sonexos and SIT announced a collaboration on low-noise cooling for data centres, battery-energy-storage systems, and industrial cooling [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026] Expands the use case beyond household equipment into infrastructure cooling
Industrialisation channel Sonexos and Vandewiele Group, through Eutron, announced a collaboration to industrialise Plasmapanel and Plasmadrive solutions [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] Suggests the market path depends on manufacturing readiness as much as technical performance
EPFL-origin technology transfer EPFL partnered with Sonexos on active sound absorbers using the plasmacoustic metalayer concept, and public reporting says the system was licensed to Sonexos [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [ExtremeTech, retrieved 2026] Supports a market narrative built around differentiated IP rather than commodity acoustic parts

The table points to a market that is best read through application segments and OEM adoption pathways, not headline acoustics market size. Public evidence supports interest across several equipment categories, but it does not yet support a quantified claim about category share, segment penetration, or near-term revenue scale.

One source, partially checked -- Section relies on a mix of company statements, partner announcements, and specialist media; no named third-party market sizing report was available in the reviewed public sources.

The Competitive Field

The Competitive Field

MIXED Sonexos appears to be positioned less against a single named startup rival than against the incumbent ways OEMs suppress low-frequency noise, namely passive absorbers, enclosure redesign, and established active-noise-control architectures that are already understood by appliance and HVAC manufacturers [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026] [EPFL, retrieved 2026].

The competitive map is therefore best read by substitute class rather than by cap table. In domestic appliances, HVAC, and cooling systems, the default benchmark is still conventional passive acoustics: thicker insulation, heavier absorbers, larger housings, and airflow compromises that can reduce noise at the cost of space, weight, or efficiency [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026]. Sonexos is arguing for a different design tradeoff, using plasma-based active control as a compact alternative in applications where low-frequency noise is hard to treat with bulk materials alone [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. In that sense, its nearest competition today may be incumbent component choices inside OEM programs, not a clearly identified startup peer.

A second layer of competition comes from adjacent electroacoustic and active-noise-control approaches that already have industrial histories, even if the available source set does not name direct product competitors. Mark Donaldson and Ben Skelton both have prior operating history at SoundChip, a company built around noise-cancelling audio technology that was later acquired by DSP Group [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026] [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026]. That background matters because it suggests Sonexos is not entering the category cold. Still, headphone and codec-era ANC expertise does not by itself settle whether a plasmacoustic transducer can win qualification cycles inside HVAC, ventilation, and industrial cooling, where reliability, manufacturability, and integration discipline usually matter more than novelty alone [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026].

Where Sonexos appears strongest today is in technical originality linked to institutional provenance and early industrial alignment. EPFL has publicly tied the underlying plasma-based sound-absorption work to Sonexos through partnership and licensing references, which gives the company a clearer claim on origin than many hardware startups can show [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [Extremetech, retrieved 2026]. The January 2026 industrialisation collaboration with Vandewiele Group subsidiary Eutron, and the October 2026 financing that included Bosch Ventures, also suggest the company is trying to build a supply-side moat before broad commercial rollout [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]. That edge is meaningful but perishable: if qualification timelines slip, OEMs can remain with known passive designs for another product cycle.

The exposed flank is distribution control and proof of repeatability. Sonexos says it is running paid prototype-integration programs with global manufacturers, and its most advanced programs are targeting series production in early 2028, but the public record still stops short of named production customers or field deployment at scale [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. By contrast, incumbent acoustic-material suppliers, fan makers, and appliance OEM engineering teams already sit inside approved vendor lists and established design workflows. SIT is the only clearly named ecosystem partner tied to data-center, battery storage, and industrial cooling applications in the source set, which helps at the channel edge, but it does not yet amount to broad market control [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026].

The most plausible 18-month scenario is that the competitive outcome turns on qualification rather than awareness. Winner if X: Sonexos, if even one of the paid prototype programs converts into a named series-production design win on the timeline the company and its investors have pointed to, because that would turn the debate from technical possibility to OEM adoption evidence [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. Loser if Y: passive low-frequency treatment vendors and legacy enclosure-based solutions, if OEMs conclude Sonexos can meet cost, safety, and manufacturability thresholds while reducing bulk and preserving performance [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]. The reverse case is straightforward as well: if qualification drifts or integration proves costly, the incumbent winner is not a named startup challenger but the status quo.

Opportunity

Upside case

PUBLIC The prize here is not a better acoustic component but a credible shot at becoming an embedded noise-control layer for products that have long treated low-frequency sound as a packaging penalty, if Sonexos can move from paid prototypes to repeatable series production across multiple OEM channels [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026].

The headline opportunity is unusually clear in plain industrial terms. Sonexos is trying to sell manufacturers a thinner, lighter way to suppress low-frequency noise in appliances, HVAC equipment, cooling systems, and adjacent industrial use cases, where conventional passive absorbers consume space and add weight [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026]. That matters because the company is not presenting itself as a standalone audio brand; it is building Plasmapanel for integration into other products and systems, and public reporting says it is already in paid prototype-integration programmes with global domestic-appliance and HVAC manufacturers [Sonexos, retrieved 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]. The evidence is still early and much of it is company-linked, but the path from prototype to a component position inside high-volume OEM platforms is at least visible, especially with an industrialisation collaboration through Vandewiele subsidiary Eutron and a strategic financing that included Bosch Ventures [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] [Bosch Media Service, October 2026].

A reasonable way to frame the growth paths is below. Each one depends less on consumer pull and more on whether Sonexos can clear qualification, manufacturability, and integration hurdles inside existing equipment categories.

Scenario What happens Catalyst Why it's plausible
Appliance and HVAC design win cycle Sonexos becomes a repeat supplier of integrated low-frequency noise-control modules for global appliance and HVAC OEMs Current paid prototype-integration programmes convert into named production programmes targeting early 2028 [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026] The company has already disclosed paid programmes with global manufacturers, which is a stronger signal than lab-only pilots, even if customer names remain undisclosed [Bosch Media Service, October 2026]
Cooling infrastructure platform Sonexos extends from appliances into data-centre, battery-storage, and industrial cooling systems through fan and system partners The SIT partnership and certified fan model create a route into noise-sensitive cooling deployments [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026] Public materials show a partner-led route to market in cooling, with SIT positioned as Sonexos's first Certified Fan Partner for these applications [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026]
Industrial acoustics component standard Sonexos becomes the preferred compact active absorber for OEMs that cannot tolerate the size trade-offs of passive materials Industrialisation with Eutron lowers adoption friction and helps move Plasmapanel and Plasmadrive into qualified products [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] The combination of EPFL-origin IP, licensing history, and an announced industrialisation partner suggests the company is trying to standardize around manufacturable modules rather than bespoke consulting projects [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [Researchers Use Plasma to Create Thin, Noise-Cancelling Speakers

The compounding mechanism, if it appears, would come from qualification and integration rather than a classic consumer network effect. A first production win in one appliance or HVAC platform could shorten the sales cycle for adjacent OEMs because the core proof point would no longer be whether plasma-based active absorption works in a lab, but whether it survives certification, manufacturing, and field conditions in a shipped product [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026]. That flywheel gets stronger if Sonexos can pair its patent estate with design consultation, benchmarking, system integration support, and manufacturing guidance, effectively making adoption easier for each next customer even before pure component scale arrives [Sonexos, retrieved 2026]. The current signals are preliminary, but paid prototype programmes, the Eutron collaboration, the EPFL link, and the SIT partnership together suggest the company is already trying to build that adoption stack in the right order [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [EPFL, retrieved 2026] [The Beacon Journal, July 2026].

The size of the win is still best expressed as a scenario, not a forecast. Sonexos disclosed a CHF 5 million Pre-Series A in October 2026 and said its most advanced customer programmes are targeting series production in early 2028, which places the company firmly in pre-scale commercialization rather than broad deployment today [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [AudioXpress, October 2026]. If the appliance, HVAC, and cooling-infrastructure scenarios above play out, the outcome could resemble a strategically valuable industrial component company with multiple OEM sockets and licensing or module revenue across several end markets. There is not enough sourced public data here to anchor a defensible valuation comparable without inventing one, but the strategic logic is straightforward: a company that becomes a default low-frequency noise-control layer inside space-constrained systems would be materially more valuable than a single-product acoustics vendor (scenario, not a forecast) [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026].

No independent source found -- This section relies heavily on company-linked and investor-linked public statements, with selective corroboration from Bosch Media Service, AudioXpress, EPFL, Startupticker, Dealroom.co, and partner announcements.

Sources

Publicly reported

  1. [Sonexos, retrieved 2026] Sonexos | Where sound enhances experience | https://sonexos.com/

  2. [Startupticker, October 2026] Sonexos raises CHF 5 Million to reduce noise with plasmacoustic technology | https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/sonexos-raises-chf-5-million-to-reduce-noise-with-plasmacoustic-technology

  3. [Bosch Media Service, October 2026] Bosch Ventures invests in Sonexos | https://www.bosch-presse.de/pressportal/de/en/news?search=1&id=252

  4. [Swiss Startup News / Startupticker, October 2026] Sonexos raises CHF 5 Million to reduce noise with plasmacoustic technology | https://www.startupticker.ch/en/news/sonexos-raises-chf-5-million-to-reduce-noise-with-plasmacoustic-technology

  5. [EPFL, retrieved 2026] Actively reducing noise by ionizing air | https://actu.epfl.ch/news/actively-reducing-noise-by-ionizing-air/

  6. [Extremetech, retrieved 2026] Researchers Use Plasma to Create Thin, Noise-Cancelling Speakers | https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/334645-researchers-use-plasma-to-create-thin-noise-cancelling-speakers

  7. [AudioXpress, October 2026] Bosch Ventures Backs Sonexos to Bring Plasma-Based Noise Control to Series Production | https://audioxpress.com/news/bosch-ventures-backs-sonexos-to-bring-plasma-based-noise-control-to-series-production

  8. [Sustainable Planet Switzerland, May 2025] SONEXOS APPOINTS ANDREA ONETTI AS CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER TO LEAD GLOBAL OPERATIONS & COMMERCIALIZATION OF PLASMAPANEL | https://sustainableplanet.swiss/2025/05/12/sonexos-appoints-andrea-onetti-as-chief-operating-officer-to-lead-global-operations-commercialization-of-plasmapanel/

  9. [The Beacon Journal, July 2026] Sonexos and SIT partner on low-noise cooling for data centres and energy storage | https://www.beaconjournal.com/press-release/story/214268/sonexos-and-sit-partner-on-low-noise-cooling-solutions-for-data-centres-and-energy-storage/

  10. [Dealroom.co, retrieved 2026] Sonexos and SIT partner on low-noise cooling for data centres and energy storage | https://app.dealroom.co/news/feed/sonexos-and-sit-partner-on-low-noise-cooling-for-data-centres-and-energy-storage

  11. [Crunchbase, retrieved 2026] SoundChip | Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/soundchip

  12. [Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions, January 2026] Sonexos and Vandewiele Group Announce Strategic Collaboration to Industrialise Plasmapanel® Noise Control Solutions | https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260128765432/en/Sonexos-and-Vandewiele-Group-Announce-Strategic-Collaboration-to-Industrialise-Plasmapanel-Noise-Control-Solutions

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