Open Bionics, a UK based start-up company, will take its bespoke 3D-printed prosthetic arms to even more children and young people, after attracting £4.6 million from investors.
Materials such as POM, PU or PVC are often used for a prosthetic arm and the ‘hero’ arm by the company weighs less than 1kg.
Features include a posable wrist that can rotate through 180 degrees, and a posable thumb that can easily pick up small objects.
Open Bionics
Tilly Lockey - Open Bionics ambassador
This investment will allow Open Bionics to scale up its manufacturing capabilities to serve the UK and overseas markets, including the United States.
The Williams F1 team’s Foresight Williams, Downing LLP and Ananda Impact Ventures co-led the investment with £1.5 million each, with additional funding from Rathbone Nominees.
Supported by a contract with NHS England that used SBRI Healthcare – part of the Innovate UK Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI), the arm was awarded £697,464 to support clinical trials of its bionic limbs for child amputees.
This helped to get the product medically-certified, making it available through the NHS and other national healthcare systems including in France and Germany, as well as private sales.
Samantha Payne, co-founder and COO of Open Bionics, said: “This funding enables us to serve multiple international markets.We’re thrilled to finally be able to deliver bionic hands to amputees and people with limb differences in the USA.”