Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Superhero bionic arm start-up gets F1 backing
APIONEERING West tech start-up which has rapidly revolutionised how children with amputations get bionic limbs has gained £4.6 million new funding – including from a Formula One team.
The astonishing pace with which Open Bionics has grown and impacted the prosthetics market has put it in pole position to challenge the established giants of the sector.
The Bristol-based company was only founded in 2014 by Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne. It has already attracted the attention of Disney, the Dalai Lama and Sir James Dyson, among others.
And now Formula One’s Williams Advanced Engineering Group has led a funding round that enables the ‘tech for good’ company to expand.
The F1 team has won a total of 16 world championships – nine constructors and seven for drivers, including Nigel Mansell and Damon Hill. Its founder, Sir Frank Williams, knows a thing or two about overcoming adversity. A terrible car accident in 1986 left him unable to walk, but he has continued to be one of the outstanding figures in British engineering and sport leadership.
The investment in Open Bionics, which is based at Future Space at UWE Bristol, will allow one of the genuine success stories of Bristol’s tech cluster to expand into the USA.
Other investors include Ananda Impact Ventures and Downing Ventures.
The start-up develops bionic limbs in the style of superheroes for children and adults, reducing the perceived stigma of prosthetic limbs. It creates advanced multi-grip bionic hands called ‘Hero Arms’ for amputees. The company uses 3D technologies such as 3D scanning and 3D printing to radically reduce costs.
Open Bionics has achieved a price point that means their multi-grip bionic hand is the only advanced device that’s affordable enough to be covered by national healthcare systems in major western markets such as the UK, France and Germany.
The company launched private sales in May 2018 with the ‘Hero Arm’ already becoming the best-selling multi-grip bionic hand in the UK. Open Bionics has worked closely with the NHS for two years under a product development contract with the joint goal of being able to offer these life changing devices through clinics. The team has already sold devices in France and Spain with goals to serve more European countries this year.
Open Bionics is the first company to create multi-grip bionic hands small enough to fit children as young as nine years old.
The Hero Arm enables amputees to choose between different finger speeds and movements enabling the wearer to pick up small objects like marbles with a fine pinch to carrying shopping baskets with a full hand grasp.
Samantha Payne, co founder and COO, said: “This funding enables us to serve multiple international markets and we’re thrilled to finally be able to deliver bionic hands to amputees and people with limb differences in the USA later this year. We’re exceptionally excited to receive this support from such high calibre investors who not only offer financial backing but incredible experience in commercialisation, measuring impact, and engineering high performance hardware.”
Joel Gibbard, co founder and CEO, said: “This investment provides crucial capital to help Open Bionics deliver on its vision of making advanced prostheses available to a much wider audience of limb-different users. We look forward to offering the Hero Arm in multiple international markets and continuing the development of great products that solve challenges within mobility and independence.”
Open Bionics has won multiple awards for engineering and innovation including the £1 million prize for the AI and Robotics for Good award, the James Dyson award for engineering, and two British Engineering Excellence awards. The company also secured multiple licensing agreements from entertainment creators Eidos Montreal and The Walt Disney Company to create bionic limbs inspired by their most popular characters.
Last year Open Bionics received support from Luke Skywalker himself, Mark Hamill.
Matthew Burke, head of technology ventures at Oxfordshire-based Williams Advanced Engineering, said: “Williams Advanced Engineering is excited to work with the team at Open Bionics and share our expertise in product development systems.”
We’re thrilled to be able to deliver bionic hands to amputees
in the USA SAMANTHA PAYNE