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In New York, ERP & Finance, Awards

Specright Named to Fast Company’s List of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023

Specright a leader in Specification Management software, has been named to Fast Company’s prestigious annual list of the World’s Most Innovative Companies for 2023, honored at No. 3 in the Enterprise category. Specright participated in SAP.iO Foundry New York’s Sustainability & Consumer program and SAP.iO’s Rising stars program in 2022.

This year’s list highlights the businesses at the forefront of their respective industries, paving the way for the innovations of tomorrow. These companies are setting the standard with some of the greatest accomplishments of the modern world. In addition to the World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies, 540 organizations are recognized across 54 sectors and regions.

“At Specright, our vision is to live in a world without waste, and we believe the best opportunity to do so is to empower people and companies across the globe with the data needed to make products and packaging sustainably,” said Matthew Wright, Specright Founder and CEO. “It is such an honor for Specright to be named alongside so many incredible, innovative companies and this award is a testament to all of the great work our team has done in driving the Specright mission forward.”

Specright helps companies digitize product and packaging specification data and share and collaborate on that data with supply chain partners to reduce costs and errors, drive efficiency, and increase speed to market. This past year, the company surpassed two million products on its platform globally, supporting Fortune 500 and challenger brands and boasting a 99 percent customer retention rate. Specright also received a patent for its Specification Data Management™ platform, validating the uniqueness of Specright’s spec-first approach to product and packaging development, quality management, and above all – sustainability tracking and reporting. The patent also covers Specright Network, which enables brands, suppliers, retailers, and manufacturers to share live, digital specifications with one another.

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In Tokyo, ERP & Finance

Sustainable Lab harnesses the power of data science

Yuki Kishi, the chief financial officer of Sustainable Lab, a financial technology startup that gathers companies’ ESG data and provides it to investors and banks, was the guest at The Japan Times Sustainable Roundtable No. 27, hosted by Ross Rowbury. Sustainable Lab participated in SAP.iO’s Foundry Tokyo Data & Analytics Program.

The company wants to become a recognized platform in the quest for worldwide sustainability and contribute in a meaningful way to sustainability-based decision-making. In the coming years, they hope to expand their business operations outside their base of Japan to include Singapore, Europe and the United States. Kishi and Rowbury discussed a range of topics including diversity, Sustainable Lab’s initiatives and issues facing the sustainability transition today.

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In ERP & Finance

Specright Recognized as a Representative Vendor in New Gartner® Market Guide for Packaging and Product Specification Management

Specright, Inc., the pioneer of Specification Management software that helps customers take control of their supply chain data, today shared business momentum milestones from this year that cement its position as category leader, including new recognition from Gartner. The 2022 Gartner Market Guide for Packaging and Product Specification Management names Specright as a Representative Vendor for Packaging and Product Specification Management (PPSM).

“With two million products on our platform globally, Specright is helping companies make the products and packaging that we use every day in an efficient, sustainable way – from Tide Pods, to Carmex chapstick, and even the packaging for COVID-19 vaccines,” said Matthew Wright, CEO and founder at Specright. “It’s rewarding for the entire Specright team to reap the recognition of our industry-leading position in the market.”

Digitized Specification Management is vital for businesses in packaging, product development, supply chain, manufacturing, and more that need to easily create, share, and track product and packaging specifications while working closely with suppliers to bring their product to market while ensuring sustainability. Specifications are constantly changing, and managing this data with Excel spreadsheets, PDFs, and email can result in product recalls, waste, and production delays when outdated specs are used. Specright not only digitizes this data with a patented, spec-first platform but introduces a new way for companies to make amazing, sustainable things by developing them from the ground-up.

Specright’s approach has led to year-over-year doubling of revenue and the number of active platform users since the company’s first funding round. Multiple companies in the Fortune 500 as well as challenger brands choose Specright as the foundation for digitizing their supply chains, including Colgate-Palmolive, Taylor Farms, and Johnson & Johnson, and the platform boasts 99 percent customer retention.

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In New York, ERP & Finance

Queen of Raw, Inc. Raises from Future Planet Capital for Software, Saving Companies $200 Billion in Waste

Queen of Raw, Inc., a New York-based climate fintech company specializing in recouping value from excess inventory, has raised funding from Future Planet Capital (“FPC”), the international venture capital and impact investor with ~$400M of committed capital and a portfolio including 23andMe, Vaccitech, and Tokamak.

$288B of excess inventory annually becomes waste in landfills, burned, or laid to rest in warehouses. Queen of Raw turns it into a revenue source through sustainable solutions. Its flagship SaaS software, Materia MX, was released out of stealth over a year ago in response to growing supply chain inefficiencies, rising prices, and excess inventory that were escalated amidst the pandemic. These market forces are depleting company profits.

Companies using Materia MX can digitally manage, resell, and recycle excess inventory from a centralized location, with end-to-end automation and reporting in the cloud. Business losses are recouped and capital is preserved to be deployed during periods of recession. No CapEx required.

For its customers, including some of the world’s biggest Fortune 500 companies, the amount of wasted materials represents up to 15% or more of their bottom line. “At that volume,” says Stephanie Benedetto, the female founder and CEO of Queen of Raw, “waste isn’t just environmentally irresponsible–it’s a financial risk and a CFO issue.” An example of the impact: In just weeks leveraging the software, one client realized savings on $14M worth of inventory and holding costs, generating revenue from recycling 10 metric tons of excess materials in Asia and diverting 95% from landfills and incineration.

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In Awards, Berlin, ERP & Finance

Top Innovative Artificial Intelligence (AI) Powered Startups Based in Canada (2022)

Artificial intelligence is transforming the innovation landscape around the world. There are numerous instances of startups leveraging AI to address issues of all sizes. In this article, they look at MindBridge Analytics, an SAP.iO startup from the Foundry Berlin program.

MindBridge enables financial professionals to access improved working methods by discovering, surfacing, and assessing risk across large financial datasets. The application integrates audit and finance experience with data science and AI innovation to support professional judgment and meet financial openness needs. MindBridge’s patented platform helps users trust their figures and lessen ambiguity by offering crucial insights into the company’s financials.

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In ERP & Finance, Supply Chain Management, Business Technology Platform, Sustainability

World Food Day 2022: Agritech Serves Up Farm To Fork Revolution

World Food Day on October 16 this year presents an urgent roll-up-your-sleeves challenge as we face a global food crisis as never before. The United Nations estimates there will be 9.8 billion people on this planet by 2050. Meantime crop yields have plummeted to record lows and food prices are hitting record highs, while fallout from the pandemic, extreme weather, and geopolitical conflicts continue disrupting supply chains worldwide. Nevertheless, a committed nucleus of agribusiness startups and established leaders are innovating to feed the planet’s growing population in a healthy, sustainable manner.

Data intelligence is rock against food insecurity

Companies across the value chain in the agricultural industry are turning to data in their quest for predictability. Some food processing companies are working closely with farmers to improve operations that meet regulatory emission targets and corporate sustainability KPIs, while gaining efficiencies and increasing crop yields. Climate change imperatives are only increasing the urgency to take action.

“Traditional, experienced-based farming is not viable in today’s highly dynamic world,” said Andreas Heckmann, executive vice president and head of customer solution support and innovation at SAP. “Food processing organizations need intelligence from integrated data to increase farming efficiencies. One example is SAP Intelligent Agriculture, where agribusiness organizations including farmers and other partners, share and interpret real-time data from sensors, weather stations, and satellite imagery to better understand when to plant, irrigate, grow, and harvest crops for higher yields, cost-savings, and sustainability.”

Climate intelligence boost crop yields

Real and near real-time intelligence is fast becoming a bulwark against climate change threats. One SAP partner, a Chilean-based startup called Agranimo, collects and analyzes data from climate and soil sensors and satellite images. This intelligence is designed to help growers better forecast and increase farm yields, reduce water and fertilizer consumption, and assess climate risks. With consolidated climate and soil information, growers can improve crop management strategies, including pest and disease management, for more accurate yield forecasts, as well as environmental sustainability. For example, commercial farmers can adapt irrigation to plant needs and use less water, or act quickly to protect plants from extreme weather. Agranimo participated in the Industry 4.0 cohort of SAP.iO Foundry Berlin, the company’s global B2B accelerator.

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In New York, ERP & Finance

Specright Helps Product Specs Go Green: SAP.iO Foundries Sustainability Spotlight

Disruptive crackers. It might not sound like the next revolution in industry but, in fact, it could be. Aiming to be the world’s first carbon negative food company, Bright Future LLC is on a mission to reverse climate change through nutrients. Financed by Post—the business behind Raisin Bran and Chips Ahoy! cookies, among many other products—it’s been given the freedom to operate with the agility and ingenuity of a disrupter. Airly, as its new brand is called, produces a snack described as “oat clouds” in flavors ranging from cheddar cheese to salted caramel.

And yet: How can Bright Future Foods be certain its products are helping in the fight against climate change and, if they are, how much? Can they be guaranteed down to the last gram of carbon? Enter Specright, one of the startups that went through SAP’s SAP.iO Foundries, a no equity ask global accelerator program. Created by 25 year packaging industry veteran Matthew Wright, Specright provides digitized exact and reliable data on the thousands of specifications that go into even simple-seeming products. Think about all the elements that have to be considered. Everything from a red lipstick’s gold label to its teeny-tiny measurements to its printed foil packaging materials must be accounted for. The same would go for, say, a tractor, down to the last screw. Yet, prior to Specright, such details for products were generally handled with little common language, and circulated within companies using primitive methods like email and spreadsheets, if they were managed at all.

Wright calls this new category of software “Specification Management” and Specrright’s software solution is the first patented, cloud-based Specification Management Platform. Clients ranging from Jack in the Box to Johnson & Johnson to Colgate extol its clean look and ease of use. Wright cites Steve Jobs as his inspiration. “I remember the days when you bought a computer and it was a day project to try to get something operating. Even then you had to read a book to use it. All of a sudden these Apple computers came out, and you took it out of the box and were doing stuff in ten minutes…I’m trying to do the same thing with industrial software.”

SAP.iO, which operates 11 global “foundries” for startups (though the pandemic has led some to operate virtually), is highly selective. Out of a field of company candidates that typically can reach as many as 700, just six to eight startups are chosen per “cohort,” or individual group. SAP works with the companies for three months around a theme; Specright’s group was focused on consumer and retail sustainability solutions. Upon graduation, the companies are integrated into SAP’s cloud software offerings as vetted and safe tools.

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In Foundries, Global, ERP & Finance, Network & Spend Management

5 companies leveraging startup innovation to improve their customer experience

Providing a top-notch customer experience is critical for competing in today’s market. By better understanding their customers, companies can provide personalized experiences that exceed expectations.  

To date, over 150+ startup solutions in SAP’s partner ecosystem have built integrations to help SAP customers expand the capabilities of solutions in their SAP landscape including SAP Customer Data Platform, SAP Commerce Cloud and more. 

Here are 5 impressive stories highlighting companies that are working with startups to provide world-class customer experiences. 

 

Deli Home & Expivi: Improving customer experience while delivering bespoke products at scale

Deli Home, an international supplier for DIY products, needed a solution to help their customers configure their timber orders online that could be easily integrated with their retail website and ERP system powering their business. Expivi’s 3D Product Configuration solution was the perfect solution to enable customers to order custom-made wood panels directly from their website. 

Expivi works with 3 SAP solutions and is available on the SAP Store.  

Target & SundaySky: Providing interactive video-powered experiences to its new RedCard members 

Target worked with SundaySky to provide interactive and customized video-powered experiences to its new RedCard members at many touchpoints along the customer journey to drive relevancy and deepen their customer engagement. 

SundaySky works with SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Upscale Commerce and is available on the SAP Store.  

Signet Jewelers & Creatable: Bringing in-store associates into the online store   

Signet Jewelers is working with Creatable to empower their sales teams to sell online through personalized virtual storefronts to drive new revenue, traffic and extended consumer engagement – all integrated with their online stores powered by SAP Commerce Cloud. 

 Creatable works with Industry Cloud, SAP Commerce and is available on the SAP Store.  

Jenny Craig & Jebbit: Using data to provide a better experience for customers 

Jenny Craig is a nutrition and weight loss company that partnered up with Jebbit to create a solution to generate engagement with their customers and allow them to understand potential customers’ intents, motivations, and desires by delivering engaging experiences. 

 Jebbit works with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement and SAP Customer Data Platform and is available on the SAP Store.  

Bose & ParcelLab: Delivering an outstanding end-to-end journey that delights customers 

Bose needed a flexible solution to meet customer demands and deliver a consistent customer experience across multiple touchpoints. They teamed up with parcelLab to design a series of fully customizable post-sales emails that provide customers with access to the latest updates on their order. By embedding the order tracking information solution directly in Bose’s website, they were able to significantly improve their search engine optimization and contribute to repeat sales.  

parcelLab works with SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Upscale Commerce and is available on the SAP Store.  

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

In Paris, Financial Services, ERP & Finance

Micro-climate technology startup Sencrop raises $18 million led by JVP, will expand into Israel

The French company, whose data-driven precision app enables more than 20,000 farmers to have a crop-oriented vision of the weather conditions, disease and pest risks, and their irrigation needs, will open an extension in the International Foodtech Center in the Galilee

French startup Sencrop, which develops micro-climate technology, announced on Tuesday that it has raised an $18 million Series B fundraising round led by Israeli venture capital firm JVP, as part of the VC fund’s climate and foodtech initiative. EIT Food, supported by the European Union, Stellar Impact (managed by Telos Impact), IRD Management, and Sencrop’s existing shareholders, including BPIfrance, Demeter IM, and NCI Waterstart, are also taking part in the transaction. JVP’s investment was led by General Partner Gadi Porat and Director of Investments Alexandre Dahan.

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In Foundries, Global, ERP & Finance, Network & Spend Management

5 Visionary Companies Leveraging Startup Innovation to Optimize Business, Finance and Operations Processes

SAP’s ERP, Financial Management, and Spend Management solutions help thousands of businesses increase efficiency and gain insight to guide their businesses by solving complex business problems. Since 2017, SAP.iO has been building an ecosystem of startup solutions to help customers extend the value of their investment in these SAP solutions and we’re proud that over 145 startups in our portfolio are integrated with SAP solutions including SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba and are available on the SAP Store. 

 

Each of the 5 companies featured below are staying ahead of the curve by leveraging startup innovation to optimize their business, finance, and operations processes. 

 

Decathlon & Trustpair: Reducing risk by detecting and preventing wire transfer fraud

Decathlon, a leading sporting goods retailer, teamed up with Trustpair to build a clean Vendor Master File and work with reliable supplier data to comply with Loi Sapin II regulations in less than 4 months. Today, Decathlon continues to prevent payment errors and reduce fraud risks by continuously auditing third party databases. 

Trustpair works with SAP S/4HANA, SAP HANA, and SAP Ariba and is available on SAP Store 

Bunge & Sedna: Harmonizing global supply chain communications 

Bunge has over 25,000 employees across 40 countries and was looking for new ways to bring their global supply chain team together. They used SEDNA’s intelligent communication system to harmonize workflows, processes, and information across the company – resulting in improved visibility and productivity. 

Sedna works with SAP S/4HANA Cloud & Industry Cloud and is available on SAP Store 

RWE Power & Pexapark AG: Customizing benchmarks and delivering insights for renewable energy prices   

RWE, a leading German energy company, required clear and up-to-date insights into the current market pricing of clean energy to scale their investment in renewable energy. They partnered with Pexapark to develop a customized pricing, analysis, sourcing, and monitoring solution that models forward pricing curves across European markets on demand. 

 Pexapark AG works with SAP S/4HANA and is available on SAP Store 

Dole & Clarifruit: Developing a next-gen quality control platform to target a 10% reduction in fruit loss 

Dole joined forces with Clarifruit to launch an innovative commercial partnership to automate their quality control processes and reduce fruit loss. By implementing an AI-powered solution, Dole can automatically collect inspection data, integrate it into their ERP system, and provide their leadership team with high-quality real-time information and analytics. 

 Clarifruit works with SAP S/4HANA and is available on SAP Store 

SAP & 4tiitoo: Leveraging eye tracking technology to improve employee ergonomics 

As part of their “pledge to flex” initiative, SAP worked with 4tiitoo to implement their AI-powered gaze control solution that provides employees with an innovative tool that helps improve ergonomics by reducing mouse movements and mouse-keyboard swaps. This new feature is already working to improve employee wellbeing, increase efficiency, and embed accessibility across business processes. 

 4tiitoo works with SAP S/4HANA Cloud and is available on SAP Store 

All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

In Munich, ERP & Finance

gridX signs four new partnerships in the e-mobility sector

On expansion course: gridX signs four new partnerships in the e-mobility sector
The smart grid company gridX, which was recently acquired by E.ON, continues to expand and today announces partnerships with four companies that are actively shaping the energy market in Europe.

For the time being, the focus of the collaborations is on expanding their offerings in the area of electric mobility. The power grid was not built with today’s demand for e-mobility in mind – but with gridX’s AI-based charging management, seamless charging can become a reality.

With the installation of charging infrastructure in buildings, underground garages and parking areas, the load on the grid or at house connections increases enormously. Dynamic load management enables efficient distribution and control of energy. In this way, sufficient charging infrastructure can be implemented without expensive grid expansion.

With the four new partnerships, gridX is consolidating its role as a platform solutions provider in the field of e-mobility.

 

Electris

With the Luxembourg-based energy supplier and grid operator, Electris, gridX gains another international customer. gridX and Electris already implemented their first joint pilot projects in the field of home energy management in 2019. The new partnership enables cost-efficient, comprehensive solutions for charging infrastructure in Luxembourg, including hardware, billing services and dynamic load management (DLM). Electris customers receive a full service package that encompasses planning, installation and operation. In addition, the gridX platform will enable comprehensive management for non-public and semi-public charging infrastructure (CPO).

SMART/LAB Innovationsgesellschaft mbH

SMART/LAB works with more than 245 utilities and over 100 companies to realize innovative services, products and concepts in e-mobility. With “ladenetz” for municipal utilities and “ladebusiness” for corporate customers, SMART/LAB currently offers the largest municipal publicly accessible charging network. By working with gridX, SMART/LAB can continually extend their solutions to include things like DLM, standardize the user experience (front-end integration via API), put together complete packages for tenders (for billing and DLM) and implement further research projects in the field of e-mobility (electrification of transportation).

DEW21 GmbH

The Dortmund energy supplier DEW21 already has many years of experience and has realized numerous projects in the field of charging infrastructure. With DLM, DEW21 complements its product portfolio and establishes it as the only solution for e-mobility projects in the catchment area. In the first year of the cooperation, at least 17 locations are to be equipped with DLM. The focus of the partnership is on scaling concepts, such as public charging infrastructure and multi-site customers. By using the API interface to gridX, DEW21 also opens up the possibility for data-driven business development and can thus continue to offer suitable solutions tailored to charging behavior in the future.

eliso GmbH

Throughout Germany, eliso supports companies, commercial and residential properties on their journey to building their own charging infrastructure. With a fully comprehensive service, the Stuttgart-based charging infrastructure specialist plans, installs and operates holistic and suitable charging solutions. A network of regional project managers and certified installation partners across Germany allows eliso to offer holistic and suitable charging solutions for companies, from planning and subsidy consulting, to installation and operation. With a specially developed DLM solution from gridX, eliso aims to become the full-service provider for cross-industry, intelligent and, above all, future-proof charging infrastructure in Germany. In addition, the platform solution enables a simple, central overview of all sites under its own operational management for optimized (multi-) site management.

 

David Balensiefen, Co-Founder and CEO of gridX, says: “We are really looking forward to working with our new partners, as each of these companies is driving the energy and mobility transition. To take e-mobility to the next level, dynamic load management is essential. Equally important are manufacturer-independent end-to-end solutions, which is possible through a long-term partnership with us. Our partners are able to deliver lasting benefits to their customers, easily expand and adapt their offerings, scale projects more easily, and reduce both costs and emissions.”

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In ERP & Finance, Bangalore

Augmented Reality Boosts Online Shopping Sales up to 200%

For shoppers who’ve yearned for an immersive, personalized experience that’s open 24/7, mobile augmented reality (AR) technology is the real-time deal of the next era. Bangalore-based startup Adloid is leading the charge with a platform that turns two-dimensional search and discovery into a full-fledged 3D experience, whether someone is in the market for automobiles or bikes, household furniture, consumer electronics, or personal lifestyle products.

“Our AR platform gives consumers and companies personalized virtual shopping and training experiences, expanding the horizon of what AR can do for any brand or company,” said Kanav Singla, founder and CEO of Adloid. “We’re making the benefits of this technology more accessible and contextual to create an immersive experience for customers or employees on an e-commerce Website or within applications, directly from someone’s mobile device.”

Unlike earlier AR tech that relied on clunky headsets with varied compatibility, Adloid’s AR platform runs on any smartphone, allowing customers to experience products at scale, in context. Once the online shopper logs in through their phone, the device’s camera scans their real-world surroundings and virtually mirrors the retailer’s or manufacturer’s product.

“People can see how a new sofa or chair would fit into their home or apartment with a click of their smartphone,” said Singla. “Consumers can virtually try on jewelry, makeup, and other products. Remote workers can see if that laptop, screen, and desk configuration will fit in their home office. It’s as if the actual products are in front of you.”

He added that manufacturers were interested in using the AR platform within training modules for industrial machinery service technicians, providing them with hands-on learning in a virtual setting.

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In New York, Portfolio News, ERP & Finance

Digimarc Corporation Completes Acquisition of EVRYTHNG Ltd.

Digimarc Corporation (Nasdaq: DMRC), creator of Digimarc watermarks that are driving the next generation of digital identification and detection-based solutions, announced today it has successfully completed its previously announced acquisition of the Product Cloud company EVRYTHNG Ltd, based in London, UK.

As EVRYTHNG becomes part of Digimarc, it enables a complete solution set for customers, combining the best form of identification with the best cloud platform for gaining and managing the intelligence unlocked by that identification of objects.

“This acquisition is transformative to our business,” explains Digimarc CEO Riley McCormack. “EVRYTHNG’s market-leading product cloud offering provides Digimarc entrée into a potentially enormous market at the cusp of inflection, powers up our ability to sell robust, fully-integrated solutions that no one else can offer, and provides future cross-selling opportunities by providing more on-ramps to our dual platforms. In addition to adding 65 talented and passionate individuals to our team, we can leverage the complementarity of our geographic presence, expanding our ability to serve our increasingly-global customer base while also increasing our ability to attract and retain the best talent world-wide.”

EVRYTHNG is the market leader and pioneered the Product Cloud category, linking every product item to its Active Digital Identity™ on the web and joining-up product data across the value chain for visibility, validation, real time intelligence and connection with people.

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In Bangalore, ERP & Finance

Adloid raises $4 Mn in pre-Series A

Adloid, an AR builder platform, has raised $4 million in its pre-Series A round led by Chiratae Ventures (Formerly IDG Ventures), and Lenskart Vision Fund. EaseMyTrip co-founder Prashant Pitti, Seeders, and 100x Entrepreneur have also joined the new round.

With this round, Adloid is rebranding to Metadome, a metaverse that will provide the no-code infrastructure to creators and brands for the virtual world.

Started by Shorya Mahajan, Prashant Sinha and Kanav Singla, Metadome provides AR deployments across automobile, home-decor, beauty and accessories, and consumer electronics. The startup works with industry leaders such as Hewlett Packard (HP), Tata Motors, Hero MotoCorp, Asian Paints and others, to create immersive 3D & AR experiences for their customers.

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