Atom Limbs
AI prosthetics company
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| Total raised (Wefunder) | ~$8.96M from 6,514 investors |
| Total raised (all sources) | ~$10.5M including SAFEs, grants, and venture |
| Valuation cap (2023 round) | $65M |
| Product pipeline | $180M+ from 9,000 qualified buyers |
| Target price | ~$20,000–$25,000 |
Atom Limbs is a Palo Alto-based prosthetics company developing the Atom Touch, an AI-powered artificial arm with individual finger control and haptic feedback.1 The company was incorporated in Delaware in April 2019 by Tyler Hayes, Doug Satzger, and Eric Monsef, and operates under the trade name Atom.9 Its technology builds on research from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory's Modular Prosthetic Limb program, a DARPA-funded effort that received $120 million to develop a neurally controlled upper-extremity prosthesis.11 Atom has raised approximately $10.5 million through a combination of equity crowdfunding on Wefunder, venture capital, and government grants including awards from the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Air Force.914
Tyler Hayes, the company's co-founder and CEO, previously co-founded Bebo, a live-streaming platform acquired by Amazon and Twitch in 2019.6 Before Bebo, Hayes co-founded Prime, a health records application that allowed patients to sync and transfer medical records across providers.6 He was also employee number ten at Disqus, the commenting platform backed by Y Combinator and Union Square Ventures, later acquired by Zeta.613 Hayes holds dual bachelor's degrees in psychology and Asian studies from St. Olaf College.6
Doug Satzger, the co-founder and chief design officer, spent years at Apple under Steve Jobs, where he led the industrial design teams responsible for the first iMac and the first iPhone.7 Satzger subsequently led the creation of the industrial design team at Intel and held similar roles at HP and Palm.7 Before Apple, he was on the founding team at Matrix, the design firm that became IDEO.7 Satzger is named on more than 500 patents and holds a bachelor of science in design from the University of Cincinnati.7
Eric Monsef, the co-founder and chief technology officer, created Apple's Core Hardware Team of more than 180 engineers and managed over $250 million in budget.8 He led architecture and design on the original MacBook and MacBook Pro lines.8 After Apple, Monsef served as vice president and general manager of immersive systems at HP and then as CTO at Glydways, an autonomous transit startup.8 He holds a master of science in engineering from Santa Clara University and is named on more than 40 patents.8
The company's medical director is Jayant Menon, a trauma neurosurgeon and clinical associate professor at Stanford.10 Across the three co-founders, voting power is split 38.2% (Hayes), 25.5% (Satzger), and 25.5% (Monsef), based on common stock holdings of 3 million, 2 million, and 2 million shares respectively.9 The team size is approximately 15 people.1
The company's flagship product is the Atom Touch, a full-arm prosthesis that includes the shoulder interface, elbow, wrist, and hand in a single integrated unit.3 Most other upper-limb prosthetics available consist of separate elbow, wrist, and hand components from different manufacturers assembled by a prosthetist; the Atom Touch places the battery and onboard computer in the forearm section.3
The arm is controlled through electromyography (EMG): the wearer places a cuff containing electrodes over their residual limb, and the electrodes read electrical signals from the user's muscles.2 An onboard AI system called the Atom A1 neural interface interprets those signals and translates them into movements of the elbow, wrist, and individual fingers in real time.4 The company states the arm has more than 200 sensors and over 10 motors in the hand alone.114 The arm provides haptic feedback: when the fingers contact an object, the socket buzzes against the residual limb to signal grip.3
The arm attaches to the wearer via a load-balanced harness that distributes weight across the torso rather than concentrating it on the residual limb.4 The BBC reported in February 2024 that the arm felt lighter than other bionic arms the reviewer had seen, although it still carried noticeable weight.2 The company states the arm weighs less than a human arm.11 The arm includes a full range of motion in the elbow, wrist rotation, and individual finger flexion, including an opposing thumb with rotation, abduction-adduction, and flexion-extension at each joint.42
In a CNET demonstration in August 2024, tester Jason Morris, who lost his arm in a work accident 12 years earlier, picked up a spray bottle and carried it across the room using individual finger grip.3 Morris could control every joint including the wrist, allowing him to level the hand when reaching for a glass without contorting his body.3 The Atom Touch is non-invasive, meaning it does not require any surgical implants to function.2
Atom's technology builds on the Modular Prosthetic Limb (MPL) developed by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.11 The MPL was the product of the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) starting in 2006 with $120 million in investment.1511 Johnny Matheny became the first person to wear and use the MPL for an extended period when Johns Hopkins gave him the arm for a year of testing in 2018.11
Atom holds an exclusive option agreement with Johns Hopkins APL to commercialize technology derived from the MPL, though the company does not own the MPL or its intellectual property.11 The arrangement allows Atom to build upon the underlying research while developing its own commercial product.11 The SEC filings describe the relationship as an exclusive partnership to consumerize the MPL system.9
Atom Limbs Inc. was incorporated in Delaware in April 2019 and received an initial $150,000 SAFE investment that same month.9 The company received a $17,000 loan in May 2020 and a $25,000 SAFE in August 2020.9
The company's first Wefunder crowdfunding round opened in February 2021 and raised $1,016,475, followed by an additional $763,493 SAFE in April 2021.9 In November 2021, Atom raised $1 million in a single hour from retail investors on Wefunder during a Regulation CF offering.12
A second major Wefunder campaign in April 2022 brought in $4,999,988 via SAFE, with an additional $486,750 SAFE in June 2022.9 In total, the company raised $5,486,738 during 2022.9 A third Wefunder round opened in October 2023 with a $65 million valuation cap and closed in April 2024, raising $1,690,201 from the main campaign plus $350,000 in a separate SAFE.910
By April 2024, the company had raised $8,960,157 from 6,514 investors on Wefunder alone.9 Including venture capital from firms such as Moai Capital, J4 Ventures, and Village Global, as well as angel investors including Trevor Blackwell and Anthony Pompliano, the total raised across all sources was approximately $10.5 million.9 The company also received $331,000 in government grants, including a $256,000 Phase I SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation and awards from the U.S. Air Force.149
As of October 2023, the company reported $100,000 in cash on hand and an average monthly burn rate of $200,000, with zero revenue.9 Net losses were $3,718,607 for fiscal year 2022 and $1,941,209 for fiscal year 2021.9
The Amputee Coalition estimates that 5.6 million people in the United States live with limb loss or limb difference.3 A 2021 study published in PubMed found that 44% of 68 traumatic upper-limb amputees had abandoned their prosthetics, with no significant improvement in acceptance rates for devices fitted after 2006 compared to before.11 Atom's company page states that less than 1% of the estimated 100 million people worldwide with limb loss use a prosthetic.5
The prosthetics and orthotics market in the United States was valued at approximately $2.59 billion, with upper-extremity prosthetics accounting for about 25% of that total.10 Atom targets a price point of around $20,000 for the Atom Touch, which the BBC noted would be at the lower end of the bionic prosthetics market.2 Ian Adam, a lecturer in prosthetics and orthotics at the University of Derby, told the BBC the price was competitive for the industry, though he noted patients are cautious about spending on upper-limb prosthetics that may not meet expectations.2
The company reported a pipeline of more than $180 million from 9,000 qualified buyers as of its 2023 Wefunder filing, with the waitlist growing approximately 15% per quarter.109 In August 2024, CNET reported that the company anticipated clinical trials and FDA authorization, with commercial availability expected 12 to 18 months after regulatory clearance.3 Atom also plans to sell the arm to non-medical robotic organizations in agriculture, factory assembly, and hazardous environments.10
Other companies developing advanced upper-limb prosthetics include BrainRobotics, which uses brain-machine interface technology for a prosthetic hand; Unlimited Tomorrow, which produces custom 3D-printed prosthetic arms; and Mobius Bionics, which develops the LUKE Arm controlled by multiple input types.10 BrainCo (now BrainRobotics) demonstrated a prosthetic hand with individual finger control in 2020, but it is a hand rather than a full arm, and it had not yet reached the commercial market as of CNET's reporting in August 2024.3 The Atom Touch's primary differentiator is its integrated full-arm design with finger-level control and non-invasive neural interface, compared to competitors that typically offer either hand-only devices or arms with limited grip patterns.310