Trexo Robotics

Trexo Robotics is a Mississauga, Ontario-based medical robotics company that builds wearable lower-limb exoskeletons for children with mobility impairments.⁶ The company was founded in 2016 by Manmeet Maggu and Rahul Udasi, both mechatronics engineering graduates of the University of Waterloo.¹ Trexo's devices attach robotic legs to a wheeled walker frame, providing powered hip and knee assistance that enables children with conditions such as cerebral palsy, spinal muscular atrophy, and muscular dystrophy to walk overground.⁴ As of November 10, 2024, Trexo users had collectively taken more than 100 million assisted steps.¹

Origin

In 2011, Maggu learned that his nephew Praneit, living in India, had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and would not be able to walk independently.⁵ Maggu and his family searched for existing robotic solutions and found that nearly all commercial exoskeletons were designed for adults; nothing existed for children.² Maggu began building a pediatric exoskeleton as his senior design thesis at the University of Waterloo in 2012, using a 3D printer he purchased for $600.²

After graduating, Maggu worked at BlackBerry and Qualcomm while continuing to iterate on prototypes in his apartment.² His former roommate Udasi, who had worked at Willow Garage and other robotics firms, returned to Toronto to pursue a master's in robotics at the University of Toronto; Maggu enrolled in an MBA at U of T's Rotman School of Management.² The two reunited and formalized the company in 2016.¹

That summer, Maggu and Udasi packed the prototype exoskeleton in a suitcase and flew to India.³ The first test failed, but after modifications at a factory belonging to Maggu's brother in Delhi, Praneit took his first assisted steps.² "Watching Praneit take his first steps using our device was an incredibly proud moment for us," Maggu told U of T News.³

Accelerators and funding

Trexo moved through several accelerator programs at the University of Toronto, including the Health Innovation Hub (H2i), the Entrepreneurship Hatchery, the Department of Computer Science Innovation Lab (DCSIL), and the Creative Destruction Lab (CDL).³ In 2017, the company completed the Techstars IoT accelerator in New York and won first prize in a Sunnybrook Hospital pitch competition, taking home roughly $35,000 in prize money.³

The company graduated from Y Combinator's Winter 2019 cohort.² By that time Trexo had raised $720,000 in seed funding.² Crunchbase records a total of $1.54 million raised over six rounds.⁹ Maggu told BetaKit in December 2024 that Trexo had raised more than $5 million to date, though he declined to disclose further details.¹

Products

Trexo produces two products: the Trexo Plus for clinical use and the Trexo Home for consumer use.⁶ Both consist of a pair of robotic leg attachments mounted on a wheeled walker frame, with powered motors at the hip and knee joints that guide the child's leg movements.⁴ The exoskeleton is adjustable to fit each child's positional and gait requirements and can be configured to provide progressive challenges within a motor-learning therapy framework.⁷

The Trexo Plus, designed for use by physical therapists in clinical settings, has been commercially available since 2017.⁷ It is registered as a Class I medical device by Health Canada and a Class II medical device by the FDA.⁷

Children with the following conditions have used the Trexo: cerebral palsy (GMFCS levels III through V), spinal muscular atrophy, muscular dystrophy, stroke, brain injury, hemiplegia and paraplegia, spinal cord injury, Rett syndrome, and other neuromuscular conditions.⁶

Pricing

The Trexo Home costs approximately CAD $35,000 for small and medium sizes and approximately CAD $40,000 for large and extra-large sizes, with a 36-month leasing option at $1,000 down.¹ Each purchase includes the exoskeleton, an operating tablet, a training video call, and regular check-ins.¹ Maggu has acknowledged the cost as a barrier, noting that robotic systems are "incredibly expensive to build."¹ The company has been working toward insurance coverage in both Canada and the United States.⁸

Clinical research

Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto registered a clinical trial (NCT05463211) to assess the feasibility of physiotherapy-assisted Trexo use in school and outpatient settings with children aged 3 to 6 who have GMFCS level IV cerebral palsy.¹¹ The mixed-methods feasibility study protocol, published in Frontiers in Neuroscience in July 2024, measures functional outcomes, brain connectivity via MRI, muscle activation, and user experience across a six-week physiotherapy block of twice-weekly 30-minute sessions.⁷

Earlier home-based studies documented benefits including improved sleep quality, bowel function, postural function, and positive affect associated with Trexo use.⁷ The Cerebral Palsy Alliance Research Foundation has highlighted the Trexo as part of a broader class of robotic gait trainers being studied for their potential to help children with severe cerebral palsy develop walking skills.¹²

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, the largest pediatric rehabilitation program in the United States, began piloting the device in 2018 after seeing it demonstrated.³

Impact and milestones

By March 2023, children using Trexo devices had collectively walked 40 million steps, which the company compared to the distance of two trips around the world.⁸ That count reached 100 million assisted steps on November 10, 2024, ending what Maggu described as months of informal office bets about the milestone date.¹

As of December 2024, Trexo had approximately 300 units in active use, averaging roughly 333,000 steps per unit.¹ One user, a 10-year-old named Mitch who has an undiagnosed rare genetic disorder, accounted for more than 2 million of those steps on his own.¹ Another user testified that she went from 30 steps in a manual walker to 4,000 steps with the Trexo.¹

Media and recognition

Maggu delivered a TEDx talk titled "How I Made a Robot to Help My Nephew Walk," describing the personal origins of the company.¹⁰ Trexo has been featured by CNBC, TechCrunch, the New York Post, Runner's World, and the Daily Mail, among others.⁵²⁴ The company was selected as a finalist in the New Startup category of the Canadian Innovation Awards.⁴

Trexo Robotics is part of the Founders, Inc. portfolio.⁶