Synchron Series Khosla Venturesparkfiercebiotech CEO and Co-founder Dr. Sankai is honored worldwide for his revolutionary approach to brain-computer interfaces, which reanimate paralyzed patients’ limbs through robotics/neuroprosthetics. His company, Cyberdyne, was one of the pioneers in the field and paved the way for such devices as the Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) bike used by paralytics.
At a press conference today at Khosla Ventures Park in Bangalore, Dr. Sankai was joined by Khosla managing director Vijay Pande, who noted, “Sankai’s work on brain-machine interfaces is world famous. He is the real deal. The only other scientist who has been in the news for bionic limbs is Dr. Philip Kennedy at DARPA and he personally came to Bangalore to see what Sankai was doing.”
“I am honored,” Dr. Sankai said at the press conference, “Dr. Pande is a great man and a wonderful human being. I am truly grateful to him for his faith in me, and believe that I can be of service to him and our country.”
The new funds will enable Synchron to develop the next generation of its bionic limb technology, which allows patients suffering from paraplegia or quadriplegia full-time use of their limbs. Current technologies are very expensive and have only been tested on a few severely disabled people. The first public demonstration of the new technology will be on January 29, 2013.
Synchron 40m Series B Round: Khosla Ventures, Angels
Sankai’s partner for the Bangalore facility is Khosla Ventures Park Limited, which runs a world-class incubator/accelerator program. The company also has several investors from the US and Europe in its round.
About Synchron Series Khosla Venturesparkfiercebiotech: Cyberdyne Corp Khosla Ventures Pvt. Ltd. invests in revolutionary companies with the most promising and disruptive technologies. Since its inception in 2006, the company has invested more than $7 million in 40 different high-potential and entrepreneurial ventures.
About Sankai:
Dr. Sankai is inventor of unique bionic limbs that can reanimate paralyzed people and enable them to communicate, independent of any other technology, such as assistive devices, including wheelchairs and mechanical aids, thereby allowing them to reintegrate into society.
Dr. Sankai is the inventor of a unique brain-machine interface system, which has been proven to allow paralyzed people to control an advanced, robotic limb with their own thoughts. His technology can be used to help the disabled or paralyzed control their surroundings and function freely and independently.
His research was first published in the Proceedings of the IEEE in 1989 and has won him several prestigious international awards including a Pioneer Award from IEEE as well as the World Technology Award (WTA) 2012.
Sankai’s technology is portable and low-cost. He has developed a brain-computer interface that enables paralyzed people to move robotic arms and legs simply by thinking about it. It can also be used for many other applications including rehabilitation of stroke victims, after-effects of brain injuries, and so on.
Dr. Sankai achieved his Ph.D. at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; and M.S. and B.Tech at the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He was awarded a DSc (Doctor of Science) from Emory University, Atlanta, USA in 2011 for his work on noxious stimuli perception in modern humans.
