IWalk, which is working on a prosthetic foot, has raised $15 million in a third round, bringing the company's fundraising total to $38.7 million since it was founded in 2006. Participating in the latest round were Boston-based Sigma Partners, General Catalyst Partners of Cambridge and New York City-based WFD Ventures.
IWalk was founded by Hugh Herr, an MIT Media Lab professor and double amputee. And as iWalk has developed successive iterations of its PowerFoot device, few people have worn it as long as Herr, according to Scott Kirsner's Innovation Economy blog. President and CEO Tim McCarthy said the company delivered its first five "commercial'' PowerFoot devices to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., this month.
The company's PowerFoot device has reflexive powered plantarflexion that simulates the action of the ankle, Achilles tendon and calf muscle by propelling the prosthetic limb forward and slightly upward. Unlike passive carbon-fiber prosthetic feet that return only 50 percent of the energy of an intact limb, the reflexive power in the BiOM returns 100 percent while accommodating for real time terrain changes, according to the company's website.
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