Blue Arbor Technologies raised $10.5 million in Series A funding to advance its Restore Neuromuscular Interface System, a platform designed to improve prosthetic control for people with limb loss. The round was led by Ottobock, Blue Arbor’s strategic partner.
Blue Arbor plans to use the financing to complete feasibility studies, pursue an Investigational Device Exemption from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to support US clinical studies for the Restore external sensing unit, and begin development of the platform’s fully implantable internal sensing unit.
The Restore System is designed to enable independent and simultaneous control of the prosthetic fingers, wrist, and elbow. The company is developing two versions of the platform. The external sensing unit is being evaluated in feasibility studies, while the internal sensing unit is being developed as a fully implantable next-generation interface. Blue Arbor has completed two human implantations to date. The company recently reported a successful second-in-human procedure using the Restore external sensing unit at the Medical University of Vienna.
The Restore System has also been selected for use in a University of Michigan clinical study supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health. The study will compare the effectiveness of surface electrodes with implanted electrodes for prosthetic control.
The platform received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation and has been accepted into the FDA’s Total Product Life Cycle Advisory Program Pilot.
