The Cionic Neural Sleeve with Stimulation electrodes
CIONIC, the San Francisco-based bionic clothing company behind the innovative Cionic Neural Sleeve, today announced that it has received $12.5 million in Series A financing.
Founded in 2018 as a labor of love by tech innovator Jeremiah Robison, who was motivated by his young daughter’s struggles with cerebral palsy – the Cionic Neural Sleeve is quite unlike anything else on the market today.
Housed within a highly wearable legging garment, the neural sleeve uses functional electrical stimulation (FES) technology to provide electrical stimulation to lower limb muscles in which the neural pathway from the brain has been damaged by conditions such as stroke, spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.
The use of multiple electrode arrays, unseen in traditional FES systems, allows for a real-time sequencing and firing of different muscle groups within the same gait cycle –offering fully orchestrated assistance and a more fluid step pattern than can be achieved by focusing on only one neural pathway, as traditional FES systems tend to do.
Serious investment
This latest funding round was led by BlueRun Ventures, with participation from Caffeinated Capital, EPIC Ventures, JobsOhio Growth Capital Fund, and LDV Capital and makes a significant contribution to a funding pot of $23 million that the company has raised to date.
The technology, which can be operated with a smartphone, received FDA clearance earlier this year. The latest funding round will assist the company in accelerating research trials and scaling up its team in critical functions like R&D, engineering, operations, marketing and customer service.
With a razor-sharp focus on the 35 million Americans living with movement disorders, and the fact that 20% of the world’s population is projected to be affected by 2050, Robison said in a media release:
“Forward-looking investors realize that we need to take action today, and we are proud to be backed by a group of investors who recognize the need for better solutions and have joined us in our mission to redefine human mobility.”
Enthused by some of the impressive multi-site research trial data that saw as many as 94% of participants demonstrate improved mobility, one such investor – John Malloy, a General Partner and Co-Founder of BlueRun Ventures, is all in:
“I’m privileged to have known Jeremiah and the team for many years and have seen the passion, innovation, and excellence they have brought to market in the Cionic Neural Sleeve. The team has a bold vision and the ability to execute it, and we are thrilled to continue to help drive this vision forward and revolutionize human mobility as we know it today,” said Malloy.
An expanding market
The announcement comes at a time when the assistive technology market around mobility, which has been stagnant for decades, is experiencing a period of rapid expansion and innovation.
Only a few years ago, people living with walking difficulties had little else to rely on other than sticks and wheelchairs.
The use of the former to assist with walking difficulties dates back to pre-historic times while the self-propelled version of the latter was invented in the mid-seventeenth century.
While the electrification of the wheelchair came on a pace during the 1950s, spurred on by the volume of veterans returning from war with serious injuries and disabilities – there has been precious little innovation since this time.
All this has changed in the last few years with scientists, medical professionals and entrepreneurs alike – seeing the value ubiquitous connectivity offers in yielding sizable data sets for creating ever more advanced predictive algorithms and enhanced personalized care.
Today, we have everything from smart canes that can monitor the number of steps taken to self-driving wheelchairs or ones that can be steered hands-free with simple head movements.
Just like the increasing use of robotic exoskeletons to assist individuals with spinal cord injury in both physical rehabilitation and real-world movements, CIONIC’s device exists within the ecosystem of bionic wearable technologies designed to augment natural human movement, rather than simply replace it.
Robison believes there are additional shorter-term factors at play that have been integral in priming the mobility assistive technology market ahead of this period of innovation and expansion:
"Necessity is the mother of invention. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there have been rapid advancements in clinical science at a pace that would have been impossible in the past,” he says.
“Concurrently, the ubiquitous rollout of telehealth was borne of a need to reach more patients during the pandemic, but it also contributed to highly specialized remote patient care that was increasingly accessible and available in the moment of need. This shift enables CIONIC to provide the most innovative mobility care, delivered to anyone anywhere."
According to Robison, social forces and changing attitudes towards disability have played their part too:
"Disability is finally getting the focus and attention it deserves. Whether it be in the form of new policies, social movements like 'disability is diversity,' or vocal celebrities like Michael J. Fox and Selma Blair normalizing and humanizing disability, there is a growing demand for greater representation, access, and equity,” Robison says.
There is an equal need for innovators across the entire disability space to bring technology befitting of the third decade of the 21st century to bear. Hopefully, both investors and entrepreneurs alike will take CIONIC’s lead and start making more purposeful strides forward towards such a goal.
