2023-09-20 09:15:00
A new medtech is coming out of the woods in Toulouse. “ We didn’t want to be talked about until we had a sufficiently advanced product », defends its CEO. Two years after its creation, the young startup Reev communicates its existence to announce the development of robotic walking assistance. Its innovation, which can be compared to an exoskeleton, is presented above all as a motorized orthosis to be installed at the knee to relieve the stress on this joint by at least 30%.
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“The idea is to help people who suffer from walking problems due to neurological damage, such as following a stroke or multiple sclerosis. This concerns 50 million people in the world today and they do not have a suitable solution. With Reev, we want to help them feel lighter by finding freedom,” comments Amaury Ciurana, the co-founder of the Toulouse startup.
Before being an entrepreneurial project, this adventure began with a school project. During his training at Isae-Supaero, and particularly his first year, the young entrepreneur embarked on the design of an exoskeleton suitable for children with cerebral palsy. It was the meeting in the early 2020s with Robin Temporelli, then an engineer in space mechanisms at Airbus in Toulouse and a doctor in mechatronics from the University of Sherbrooke, which allowed the emergence of the Reev medtech.
Custom-made and motorized, this knee orthosis is inspired by power steering technology, omnipresent in the automotive industry. Which is no coincidence since Robin Temporelli, now CTO of Reev, is the author of a thesis on this technology.
Robin Temporelli and Amaury Ciurana co-founded Reev, in Toulouse, with the ambition of having an impact in their entrepreneurial adventure (Credits: Reev).
The United States above all
This prototype of robotic walking assistance is the result of a long incubation process for the startup and above all of the emulation that reigns within the team of 25 employees (mainly engineers) of the Toulouse startup. In addition to being supported by the Isae-Supaero startup incubator, Reev was also supported by the regional incubator Nubbo. Very recently, the young company was selected at the start of 2023 by the American accelerator Techstars Future of Longevitydedicated to innovations that meet the needs of older people and their caregivers.
“With this support, our desire is to deploy our first exoskeletons in the United States, before distributing them in France and Europe in a second. There, the regulations are more flexible for testing and distributing this type of walking assistance. In addition, it is the main market for medical equipment, which offers full support for exoskeletons,” explains Amaury Ciurana.
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If the startup has 500 m2 of premises near Labège (Haute-Garonne), Reev also recently established itself in Boston with two employees, “ the flagship robotics and medtech ecosystem where you need to be ”, according to the CEO. On site, the young company intends to carry out a validation study with MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology).
This study will be carried out concurrently with the deployment of the first exoskeletons, scheduled for the fall in the United States. “ We are in the industrialization phase of our exoskeleton. Around ten models will be produced to measure the therapeutic benefits », adds the Isae-Supaero graduate, who relied on the Thuasne group to manufacture his product. Individually, the Toulouse company is targeting a maximum price of $30,000, the average for exoskeletons fully reimbursed by the health system currently. The choice of final materials and components will therefore be regulated by this financial indicator.
A second round of funding in 2024
Before arriving there, Reev was able to benefit from its start-up, in addition to subsidies, from support to the tune of one million euros from the Lopez-Loreta foundation. This Swiss structure aims to support the academic excellence of students from a handful of French and Swiss schools, including Isae. The association has thus bet on the development of this robotic walking assistance born in Toulouse.
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To finance the deployment of its first exoskeletons in the United States, the two founders have just completed a three million euro funding round from a multitude of stakeholders. This round of funding is thus made up of Polytechnique Ventures, IRDI Capital Investissement, Newfund six business angels.
“We are counting on a larger fundraising in 2024 to finance the clinical phase in the United States, which will consist of testing our robotic assistance on dozens of patients in order to have solid statistics on the benefits of our technology. We are targeting between five and ten million dollars raised from an American fund interested in medical robotics. Which makes our establishment in Boston strategic,” concludes the co-founder.
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