Wandercraft, pioneer of walking robotics, opens U.S. corporate headquarters at Cure®, New York City's premier healthcare innovation campus

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Dec 12, 2023, 11:21 ET

French tech company develops cutting-edge self-stabilizing exoskeletons to enable walking for people with mobility impairments due to stroke, spinal cord injuries or motor neuron diseases

Cure's 22 resident companies share mission to foster collaborations spanning disciplines, sectors and geographies to advance health

NEW YORK, Dec. 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Wandercraft, developer of the world's first in market self-stabilizing exoskeleton designed to enable people with walking impairments to stand and walk again, announced today the opening of its U.S. headquarters at Cure^®, a healthcare innovation campus in New York City. The Company now has headquarters both in the U.S. where its CEO Matthieu Masselin has relocated, and in France where it originated, after receiving clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in early 2023 for its lead product, the hands-free Atalante X™ exoskeleton, for use in stroke rehabilitation.

"Wandercraft's new experiential space at Cure immerses us in the heart of the world's largest healthcare market and moves us closer to achieving our goal of creating new standards of care, recovery and movement for patients with severe mobility issues due to injury or illness," said Matthieu Masselin, CEO of Wandercraft. "Cure enhances our ability to collaborate with leading research institutions and other cutting-edge entrepreneurs, while applying our strong clinical and engineering expertise to create state-of-the-art robotic exoskeleton technologies that improve patients' clinical and functional outcomes."

Wandercraft will host an invite-only Keynote event at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday, Dec. 13 at Cure, 345 Park Avenue South, New York City. The event will include demonstrations of its new Personal Exoskeleton that will offer new, revolutionary options to those of us in wheelchairs.

"Wandercraft's technology, which masterfully combines its expertise in biomechanics engineering and neurobiology, exemplifies the innovative approaches that Cure residents are bringing to the healthcare ecosystem," said Seema Kumar, CEO of Cure. "By joining our community, Wandercraft also furthers Cure's mission to convene healthcare innovators and foster meaningful collaborations among organizations that span disciplines, sectors and geographies."

Wandercraft is joining Cure's group of start-up and established companies that have collectively raised more than $760 million since 2021. The campus community offers residents opportunities to create synergies and collaborative partnerships with peer organizations that span medical technology, healthcare services, therapeutics, healthcare investment, academic research and non-profit initiatives. Cure offers additional networking and employee education opportunities focused on critical health topics through its industry-leading event programming.

The Need for Walking Robotics
Globally, about 18 to 23 million people live with a spinal cord injury (SCI), due to an accident or illness, that impairs, or has potential to damage, their mobility.ⁱSCIs also may increase patients' risks for developing secondary medical conditions such as pressure ulcers, pain, muscle spasms, deep vein thrombosis, respiratory illnesses or chronic pain.ⁱⁱ In the United States, 255,000 to 383,000 people live with traumatic SCIⁱⁱⁱ, and SCI can occur in the more than 795,000 people who experience a stroke^iv and the nearly 1 million people who live with multiple sclerosis each year.^v

Wandercraft developed Atalante X with a proprietary self-balancing feature that enables patients to move in multiple directions without using their hands or an assistive device. Atalante X includes a dynamic Active Balance mode, unavailable elsewhere in the exoskeleton market, that leverages a motion sensor on the patient's back to enable the exoskeleton to follow the patient's movements. Active Balance brings more freedom to the patient's rehabilitation program, including gamification of the sessions to keep the patients engaged and work on core strength and balance as well as gait. Atalante also is battery powered and has an adjustable gait.

Atalante X received a Conformité Européene (CE) Mark in 2019 because it complies with the European Union's New Approach Directives, part of the mandatory conformity marking EU uses to regulate goods sold within the European Economic Area. It was cleared by the FDA in the Stroke indication in December 2022. Since 2019, more than 2,000 patients with a variety of medical conditions have used Atalante X as part of their treatment at multiple European rehabilitation hospitals, tallying almost 10,000 sessions in 2023 alone.

ABOUT WANDERCRAFT
Founded in 2012, Wandercraft is a French company, a pioneer of realistic and autonomous walking exoskeletons. The team has a lead of several years in dynamic walking algorithms, artificial intelligence and technologies related to walking robotics. The development of a personal exoskeleton is also underway with the aim, within a few years, of improving the mobility of millions of people with reduced mobility, at home and in their daily lives. Wandercraft distributes its exoskeletons to health institutions and is developing a personal version. It has received numerous awards and its ambition is supported by prestigious investors. Wandercraft fulfills the promise of robotics to offer an Ordinary Life to Extraordinary People. www.wandercraft.eu

ABOUT CURE^®Cure is a healthcare innovation campus in the heart of New York City that features cutting-edge wet and dry labs, office space, and premium event space—plus tools, mentoring, and other assistance to physician-scientists, entrepreneurs, academics, and nonprofits working across the spectrum of healthcare and biomedicine. Cure's mission is to advance healthcare by accelerating the development of therapies and cures, and to facilitate critical conversations about the future of healthcare. For more information, please visit https://cure.345pas.com/.

ⁱ Ding W, Hu S, Wang P, et al. Spinal Cord Injury: The Global Incidence, Prevalence, and Disability From the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019. Spine (Phila Pa 1976). 2022;47(21):1532-1540. doi:10.1097/BRS.0000000000004417.
ⁱⁱ World Health Organization. Spinal Cord Injury. November 19, 2013. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/spinal-cord-injury#:~:text=There%20is%20no%20reliable%20estimate,injury%20appears%20to%20be%20growing.
ⁱⁱⁱNational Spinal Cord Injury Statistical Center, Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury Facts and Figures at a Glance. 2023. https://www.nscisc.uab.edu/public/Facts%20and%20Figures%202023%20-%20Final.pdf.
^iv U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Stroke Facts. May 4, 2023. https://www.cdc.gov/stroke/facts.htm.
^vNational Multiple Sclerosis Society. How Many People Live With MS? 2023. https://www.nationalmssociety.org/What-is-MS/Who-Gets-MS/How-Many-People.