Amano
The world's most accessible hearing aid
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| North America | McMaster University, Harvard University, University of Toronto, Hamilton Health Sciences, Anthropic |
| Global | Aga Khan University Hospital, Health for All NGO |
| 1st place | Canadian Undergraduate Biomedical Engineering Conference (pitch) |
| 1st place | HackPrinceton (Princeton's flagship hackathon) |
| 1st place | DeltaHacks (McMaster's innovation hackathon) |
Amano is a Toronto-based medical technology startup building what it describes as the world's most affordable, accessible, and sustainable hearing aid. Founded in August 2025 by Arish Shahab, Aaron Yu, and Ramin Syed — three McMaster University students in biomedical and mechanical engineering — the company combines 3D-printed hardware, speech-frequency acoustic engineering, and machine learning–based fitting to produce a hearing device designed for clinical deployment at a fraction of conventional costs 2. Amano is backed by Founders Inc and was accepted into the accelerator's Canopy Spring 2026 program in April 2026 5.
An estimated 1.5 billion people — roughly 20% of the global population — have some degree of hearing loss 8. Of those, 430 million have disabling hearing loss requiring rehabilitation, a figure the World Health Organization projects will reach 700 million by 2050 as populations age 7. Despite the scale, most who need hearing aids never receive one: global hearing aid production meets only 3% of the need in low- and middle-income countries, where incidence of untreated hearing loss is highest 8.
Commercial hearing aids require specialist audiology clinics for fitting and programming and demand ongoing battery replacement and maintenance; the WHO cites cost as a primary barrier to access globally 7. In low- and middle-income countries these barriers are near-absolute. The global economic cost of untreated hearing loss is estimated at approximately $980 billion annually 8.
In Canada and the United States, significant populations also fall through the system: people on waitlists for audiology appointments, elderly patients in rural areas, community health patients not yet ready for a full clinical device, or anyone needing an interim solution while navigating insurance. Amano's entry point is what Aaron Yu has called a "bridge to clinical care" — a device category that does not currently exist in any principled, medically credible form 4.
Amano's core product is an ultra-low-cost sound amplification device with three engineering differentiators that separate it from the generic personal sound amplification products (PSAPs) already on the market 4:
Speech-frequency acoustic optimization. Commercial PSAPs amplify all frequencies indiscriminately, which can make background noise louder than speech and cause significant discomfort. Amano's acoustic design is tuned specifically to the frequency range of human speech 4.
Machine learning–based sizing. Ear canal geometry varies significantly between individuals, and a poorly fitting device loses acoustic efficiency and comfort rapidly. Amano uses a machine learning approach to match device geometry to the user's ear via a systematic sizing model, eliminating the need for individual audiologist impressions or custom molds 4.
Safe output constraints. A serious risk of low-cost amplifiers is over-amplification — too much gain at certain frequencies can cause noise-induced hearing damage on top of the existing deficit. Amano's output constraints are designed to prevent unsafe amplification levels, bringing the product closer to the safety standards required of clinical devices 4.
The housing is 3D-printed, enabling small-batch production at low cost and rapid iteration on device geometry as the ML sizing model improves. Components can be printed locally, reducing shipping and logistics costs for global health deployments and contributing to what Amano describes as the device's sustainability profile 1.
Arish Shahab co-founded Amano in August 2025 while studying Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences at McMaster University (expected graduation 2028). Alongside Amano, Shahab conducts machine learning research at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, applying ML and finite element analysis to musculoskeletal biomechanics, and trains ML models on rehabilitation data at the University Health Network in Toronto 2. He is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of Open Source Software 2. Before Amano, Shahab founded AquaBoost, an early-detection platform for rhabdomyolysis that was subsequently acquired; the company was backed by Buildspace (YC) 2.
Aaron Yu joined as co-founder in October 2025. He studies Integrated Biomedical Engineering and Health Sciences (iBiomed) at McMaster, where he holds the Engineering Award of Excellence and is on the Dean's List 3. Yu conducts concurrent research at Unity Health Toronto in neurosurgery and critical care, and serves as an associate systematic reviewer with the European Association for Endoscopic Surgery under its guidelines committee 3. During the summer of 2025, while at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, he developed automated cancer data extraction methods and was awarded first place at the University of Toronto Medical Biophysics Summer Student Poster Presentation 3.
Ramin Syed joined as co-founder and founding engineer in September 2025. He studies Mechanical Engineering at McMaster on the Engineering Award of Excellence Scholarship and holds a position on the Dean's Honour List 6. Outside Amano, Ramin has secured over $50,000 in funding as Fundraising Manager for Amity Global Foundation 6.
Amano's primary Canadian clinical validation sites are St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and Hamilton Health Sciences, two of Ontario's major hospital networks 2. The full institutional partner list spans McMaster University, the University of Toronto, Hamilton Health Sciences, Harvard University, and Anthropic in North America, alongside Aga Khan University Hospital and Health for All NGO as global partners 1. AKUH operates hospitals and clinics across East Africa, South Asia, and Central Asia — regions where hearing loss incidence is high and audiological care scarce, per WHO data 7.
In less than a year of operation, Amano accumulated three first-place finishes at competitive events:
The company also sponsored UmmahHacks 2025, described as North America's largest Muslim hackathon, where Amano led a dedicated healthcare track on hearing health solutions for underserved communities 1.
In April 2026, Amano was accepted into Founders Inc's Canopy Spring 2026 program — the inaugural cohort of Founders Inc's flagship five-week accelerator. The acceptance was announced by Arish Shahab on April 11, 2026, with thanks to Hubert Thieblot, and received 325 reactions on LinkedIn 5. All three founders — Arish, Aaron, and Ramin — relocated to San Francisco together for the program, marking Amano's first extended presence outside Canada and its first formal connection to the Bay Area investor ecosystem 4.
Shahab described the mission publicly at the time of acceptance: "Amano is on a mission to make hearing care accessible to everyone, everywhere, from the world's most affordable hearing aid to research collaborations with leading institutions worldwide." 5
Amano's go-to-market approach is structured for clinical adoption with minimal friction. The pilot model targets three partner types — audiology clinics, ENT practices, and community health organizations — with a value proposition of no workflow disruption, optional use with appropriate patients, and structured feedback loops that generate usability and outcomes data for the team 4.
Pilots focus on two patient segments: underserved populations who would otherwise have no device at all, and interim-use patients waiting for full clinical hearing aids. Target clinical partners named in Aaron Yu's April 2026 announcement include UCSF Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Stanford OHNS, the Hearing Loss Association of America, and the American Academy of Audiology 4.