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A Californian startup that measures the body's magnetic fields without skin contact has been part of Apple since this year. The acquisition was not made public through an announcement from Cupertino, but rather through a European disclosure requirement.
Apple has acquired the Berkeley-based company Sonera. The transaction is listed in a register maintained by the European Commission, where companies designated as gatekeepers are required to register their mergers. It is the third known acquisition of the year, following the design tool Play in June and the analytics startup SigScalr in July.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Apple acquired Sonera sometime in 2026; the registry does not specify an exact date.
- Sonera develops sensors that measure the magnetic fields of the brain and muscles – without direct skin contact.
- The first application was a chip called S1 for recording muscle activity.
- The acquisition was made public through a reporting requirement under the Digital Markets Act, not through Apple.
- The purchase price is not public. Sonera had raised a total of $20 million by 2023.
What Sonera has developed
The company emerged from obscurity in September 2023 and presented a measurement method that differs fundamentally from previous approaches. Instead of capturing electrical signals via electrodes on the skin, the technology measures the magnetic fields generated by the electrical currents of nerve activity.
The practical difference lies in the elimination of skin contact. According to the company, the method still achieves high signal quality, whereas electrical sensors reach their limits at precisely this point. The company's stated goal was to make brain activity as easy to measure as heart rate or body temperature.
Sonera cited a chip for muscle measurement as its first application. In its press release announcing the market launch, the company listed potential applications such as controlling prostheses, continuous monitoring of neuromuscular diseases, detecting disease markers, and measuring athletic performance.
| Info | Value |
|---|---|
| Seat | Berkeley, California |
| Exiting stealth mode | September 2023 |
| Capital raised until 2023 | $20 million |
| First product | Chip for muscle measurement |
| Purchase price | – |
The 2023 funding round raised eleven million dollars and was led by Amplify Partners, with participation from Abstract Ventures as well as the already invested firms Spark Capital and Material Impact.
Why an EU rule made the purchase public
The most remarkable part is how the news came about. Apple doesn't usually comment on company acquisitions in detail, and a startup of this size rarely reaches the thresholds at which merger control applies.
A different regulation applies here. As a gatekeeper company designated by the European Commission, Apple must report all planned mergers as soon as the target company offers digital services or collects data – regardless of revenue thresholds. The Commission maintains these reports in a public register.
It's important to distinguish this: This obligation applies to the corporation as a whole, not to a single designated service. It therefore has nothing to do with the requirements that apply to individual platforms and which we described in the explanatory note on the Digital Markets Act. This is solely about transparency in company acquisitions.
The result is an unusual advantage for readers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: A European register provides information about American company acquisitions earlier than any corporate communication. Several Apple acquisitions in recent years have come to light precisely through this channel.
What could be built with it
Here the evidence ends and interpretation begins, hence the use of the subjunctive mood: A sensor that detects muscle activity without skin contact would open up a different input method for body-worn devices than screens and speech. Movement intentions could be detected before the movement is executed.
This technology could be used by Apple in several areas – with the watch, the anticipated glasses, and accessibility features. However, there is no proof of this. Apple has neither announced a product based on this technology, nor is it known whether the acquisition was for the team, the intellectual property rights, or a specific project.
Caution is also warranted because years regularly pass between an acquisition and a visible result at Apple. In the case of the two other acquisitions announced this year, it remains unclear to this day where the technology has ended up.
The timing is strikingly
The purchase became public knowledge the day before a keynote address where new watches were expected to be unveiled. No connection can be established from this – the register is continuously updated, and the entry pertains to a transaction that occurred months ago.
This reveals a trend, not a product announcement: Apple continues to strategically acquire sensor specialists, focusing on body-based measurements. The watches being unveiled tomorrow most likely have nothing to do with this acquisition.
Do you think contactless measurement of muscle and nerve activity is a useful addition to the wrist – or is it a category of data you'd rather not have recorded on your body? Feel free to disagree in the comments.
