Japan’s powered prosthetic leg developer BionicM secures $5M in series A funding
Summary
Participating investors are The University of Tokyo Edge Capital (UTEC), Utokyo Innovation Platform (UTokyoIPC), and the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). UTokyoIPC financially backed BionicM by selecting for the third batch of the formers entrepreneur support program in 2018.BionicM is developing a powered prosthetic leg that solves the challenges of traditional non-powered passive prostheses. BionicM will represent Japan to participate in the Advanced Technology and Engineering Challenge (A-TEC), the global startup competition to be held later this month in Shenzhen by Leaguer Group, a Chinese startup support company.Founded by Xiaojun Sun who himself had to have his right leg amputated at the age of 9 due to osteosarcoma, BionicM began research and development in 2015 at the University of Tokyos Graduate School of Information Science and Technology. The company established a corporate entity in 2018 to commercialize the product in order to bring a high-performance prosthetic leg to all those who need it at a low price.According to BionicM, more than 99% of the global prosthetic leg market deals with passive type, and has not benefited from the technological advancements that have taken place in recent years with the proliferation of robotic technology. From a sales standpoint, there is a good chance that the companys post-start-up growth will be greater in China than in Japan, Sun said.In conjunction with the funding, BionicM also announced that Tao Cheng, founder and CEO of Japanese online ad startup popIn, has joined the companys board of directors.