Sonexos Raises €5.4M to Scale Solid-State Noise Control

The big picture: Sonexos, a Lausanne-based DeepTech company, has raised approximately €5.4 million in new equity financing to advance its solid-state noise control technology from working prototypes to industrial production.

Why it matters:

• Space and Weight: Traditional noise control solutions are often bulky, especially for low frequencies, which limits design flexibility and can restrict airflow in critical systems.
• Low-Frequency Challenge: Low-frequency noise from sources like fans, compressors, and motors is pervasive and notoriously difficult to eliminate effectively with conventional passive materials or speaker-based active noise cancellation.
• Broad Applications: Sonexos’s technology targets a wide range of applications, including domestic appliances, HVAC systems, industrial machinery, automotive, and increasingly, AI data center cooling, where fan noise reduction is crucial.

How it works:

• Plasmacoustic Metalayer: Sonexos’s patented Plasmacoustic Metalayer utilizes a software-controlled plasma layer to absorb sound at a surface, providing a thin, lightweight, and solid-state alternative to conventional acoustic treatments.
• Programmable Sound Control: The Plasmacoustic Metalayer platform enables electronically programmable sound control, allowing for compact, energy-efficient management of low-frequency noise across diverse environments.
• Industrial Ecosystem: The company is fostering an industrial ecosystem, collaborating with partners like STMicroelectronics for low-power electronics development and Vandewiele Group for series manufacturing, rather than producing all components in-house.

The catch: While Sonexos’s solid-state noise control offers a compelling solution to a long-standing engineering challenge, the adoption of novel deep tech solutions can be slow. Integrating new acoustic systems into existing OEM product lines requires significant validation, reliability testing, and potential re-engineering, and the company will need to navigate a competitive landscape with established passive and active noise control providers.

Key Facts

• Company: Sonexos
• Amount: €5.4M
• Investors: Valquest Partners (lead), Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH
• Founder: Mark Donaldson
• Sector: Solid-State Noise Control
• Headquarters: Lausanne, Switzerland