Psyonic founder Aadeel Akhtar just joined the 2021 cohort of ’35 Innovators Under 35′ by the MIT Technology Review for his work advancing technology for a bionic prosthetic hand.
Aadeel Akhtar, Psyonic CEO
“It’s a huge honor to be getting this award and to be recognized as one of the top innovators in the world,” Akhtar told the 4thEst8. “I was nominated by a couple of my old professors (at University of Illinois at Urbana – Champaign) during my Ph.D.“
4thEst8 readers first heard of Psyonic in August, 2020 when the eight person startup landed a $739,000 Phase II SBIR grant to fuel commercialization and improvements to its product, the Ability Hand. The Champaign, Ill. Startup was founded in 2015 and has brought in two Phase I SBIR’s totaling $500K, as well as $625K in seed funding from Illinois Ventures, iVenture Accelerator and MTT Ventures. Akhtar says the company has been in revenue, with a “paid-Beta” limited regional release, since September 2019 and he’s working on putting together a nationwide product launch in the coming months.
The Ability Hand can flex and extend all five fingers, rotate the thumb, and provides sensory feedback from the grip and fingertips. Psyonic uses a machine learning algorithm to detect different hand movements and Akhtar says the hand can recognize different movements and responses after as little as two minutes training. The device is covered by Medicare.
According to Grand View Research, the 2019 global prosthetics and orthotics market size is estimated at $9.2 billion and is expected to exhibit a compound annual growth rate of 4.6% through 2027. Increasing incidence of sports injuries and road accidents, rising number of diabetes-related amputations, and the growing prevalence of osteosarcoma (bone cancer) around the world are poised to drive the global market.
Links:
MIT 35 Innovators Under 35 List
On the 4thEst8:
Bionic Hand Startup Grabs $739K — National Launch Within Reach
