Wandercraft was founded in 2012 with the vision of improving mobility for wheelchair users. The company’s solution comes through exoskeletons, which can give users the ability to walk with robotic assistance. In 2019, the Parisian company released the Atalante, a self-balancing exoskeleton with 12 degrees of freedom that relies on walking algorithms to determine a wearer’s gait.
Today, the company announced that it closed a Series C worth $45 million, which more than doubles the $30.5 million the company has raised to date. The round was led by Quadrant Management, a US-based company, along with existing investor Bpifrance. Quadrant’s participation is particularly notable here, as it finds the company expanding Atalante’s reach beyond Europe to the United States.
“We are super excited to have attracted world-class investors from the US and Europe to advance the company’s development program,” said company CEO Matthieu Masselin in a statement. “With the support of patients, medical professionals and the DeepTech community, Wandercraft’s team has created a unique technology that improves rehabilitation care and will soon enable people in wheelchairs to regain autonomy and improve their everyday health.”
The company will enter a crowded market as it takes on the US, which is home to a number of prominent exoskeleton companies such as ReWalk Robotics, Ekso, SuitX and Sarcos, which have so far raised a lot of money and announced some profile partnerships. One of the things that sets the company apart, however, is a pretty single-minded focus on user mobility, where much of the competition also focuses on things like manpower and/or military audiences.
This means, in part, partnering with hospitals and other healthcare providers.