San Francisco based Cionic, the developer of the Neural Sleeve, a wearable for enhanced mobility, has secured $12.5 million in Series A financing.

To date, the company has raised $23 million to build a platform for its products as it accelerates research trials and moves to commercialisation. It is now scaling up its team in key functions such as R&D, engineering, operations, marketing and customer service to support the next stage of growth.

The Cionic Neural Sleeve analyzes, predicts and augments movement using a dense array of sensors to measure how the body is positioned and how individual muscles fire during movement. It predicts intended movement by measuring the electrical signal from the brain, and then algorithms analyze this data in real time to determine optimal muscle activation patterns. The Neural Sleeve then delivers functional electrical stimulation to sequence proper muscle firing for natural movement. It is an adaptive system that provides real-time augmentation and adjustment of the wearer’s movement, updating each time a step is taken.

Motivated by his own daughter’s journey with cerebral palsy, long-time technology entrepreneur Jeremiah Robison founded Cionic in 2018, driven by the conviction that the same advances in sensing and machine learning that is powering technology like self-driving cars could be used to accelerate assistive technology and enable freer, more independent movement.

The Neural Sleeve is the first product to combine movement analysis and augmentation into a wearable, with a sleek, comfortable design that can be worn anywhere and operated by a smartphone. In multi-site research trials, 94% of participants demonstrated improved mobility when wearing it. In a later study to determine its efficacy, the company collected patient-reported outcomes in addition to kinematic data. In addition to improvements in mobility, the number of users experiencing moderate to severe pain was reduced by 60%, and the number of users experiencing moderate to severe anxiety or depression was reduced by 75%. The company recently opened an early adopter programme that will deliver in February 2023.

“We are on the precipice of a global mobility crisis, as twenty percent of the world’s population is projected to have a movement disability by 2050,” said Robison “It’s time to bring technological innovation to this growing problem. Forward-looking investors realise that we need to take action today, and we are proud to be backed by a group of investors who recognise the need for better solutions and have joined us in our mission to redefine human mobility.

The round was led by BlueRun Ventures, with participation from Caffeinated Capital, Epic Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund and LDV Capital.

www.cionic.com