CIONIC was founded in 2018 by serial entrepreneur Jeremiah Robison, who believed that there must be better options for his daughter's cerebral palsy diagnosis than crutches, walkers, and wheelchairs.
He knew from a 20 year career driving innovation at companies like Apple, Openwave, Slide, and Jawbone that advances in sensing, machine learning, and materials presented an opportunity to design nuanced assistive systems that adapt elegantly to individual mobility needs.
Our first product is inspired by two clinical experiences in his daughter's journey:
At eight years old, doctors prescribed a movement analysis to better understand how her body moved during stepping. A data capture session was scheduled at a gait lab, and after an hour of setup with optical markers and EMG sensors, she walked in a controlled straight line and a one-page report was generated.
When she was nine, functional electrical stimulation was introduced as part of her physical therapy. The therapist would carefully place electrode pads on individual muscle groups and then follow behind while his daughter walked tethered with long leads pressing a left and a right button.
We knew better was possible. What if we combined the diagnostic power of a gait lab with the therapeutic power of FES into a garment that could be worn not just in a lab, but anywhere in the world? And what if it could be controlled not by two buttons, but by algorithms that interpreted the physiological signal of the body itself?
CIONIC is a nimble startup with a small distributed team across the globe. We also work with academic partners to conduct clinical trials and introduce new treatments to Pediatric and Adult populations.
We are dedicated to helping our children play freely and our parents age actively by addressing the enormous challenge of empowering all those with mobility impairments to live independently.
