CURE BIONICS

Mohamed DHAOUAFI is the CEO & Founder of CURE, a startup that develops 3D printed bionic and customized prosthetics for children and youth with limb differences but also disruptive physical rehabilitation solutions. He is also the co-founder & COO of AGARUW, an ecological and sustainable fashion tech startup. Previously, he co-founded and managed ZETA HUB, the first private student incubator in his city.

Mohamed holds an electronics engineering degree and a master degree in Management of NGOs.

He is a MEPI Student Leader US funded program alumnus 2016 and an Obama Africa Leader 2019.

He was named as one of Innovators Under 35 by MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW for the year 2020 and as one of the 8 global innovators at the United Nations Solutions Summit.

Globally, around 30 million persons have limb differences and only 5% of them are fitted with prosthetics in a world where a such device can cost more than 100000$. Added to that, 50% of them can't afford healthcare and don’t have access to nearby, efficient and affordable therapeutic services.

On the other hand, 95% of kids with disabilities never complete primary school and 80 to 95% of people with disabilities in developing countries are unemployed.

For that, we are developing multi-grip, 3D-printed and customizable bionic arms at an accessible cost but also an immersive therapeutic solution that can be done from home in an entertaining way using gamified virtual reality while the doctor can do the follow up online in a real time way.

We believe that superheroes don’t wear capes but prosthetics and we want to introduce more super heroes to the world by unleashing their full potential.

Globally, there are one billion persons with disabilities living in a world that's often inaccessible.
30 million of them have limb differences and only 5% of them are fitted with prosthetic solutions in a world where a prosthetics can cost more than 100 000 USD and where child need an average of 10 prosthetics in his first 21 years. 
Therefore, with amputations come other side effects in many levels. On one hand, most of amputees lose hope, happiness, and self-confidence since this traumatic limb amputation is a catastrophic injury and an irreversible act that causes inability to support self and drives them toward various psychiatric disorders. Some other complication appears throughout time such as deep vein thrombosis, pain, Neuroma and phantom phenomena (30-50% of amputees). 

On the other hand, 95% of kids with disabilities never complete primary school and 80 to 95% of people with disabilities in developing countries are unemployed while 50% of them can't afford healthcare.

Added to that, they do not have nearby, entertaining, trackable, efficient and affordable therapy solutions.

We develop and create cool bionics arms for people with limb differences at an accessible price.

Our bionic arms are multi-grip offering more abilities to the user.

They are 3D-printed using an ecological raw material have an adjustable socket since children grow fast, a rotating wrist for more flexibility and freedom and wireless/solar charger for users in countries with instable/absent electricity coverage. They are controlled with muscle signals so no need for any surgical intervention to connect it with the body so it's just wearable like a globe.

Our prosthetics are stylish and continuously customizable thanks to removable covers that can have different designs and colors.

In R&D, we also developed therapeutic solution using gamified virtual reality that allows amputees to do their therapy at home while the doctor do the real-time follow up from a distance. In fact, patients with limb differences can see a virtual hand, control it and play motivating games that simulate the therapy exercises.

We are targeting communities of people with disabilities and more specifically people with limb differences in the first project in our startup.

This target population is from all ages, all genders and they are struggling in all the levels of their lives and most importantly are carrying that disability's problem while growing up creating new obstacles and difficulties for them.

In fact, 95% of kids with disabilities never complete primary school and 80 to 95% of people with disabilities in developing countries are unemployed. Most of them lose hope, happiness, and self-confidence since this traumatic limb amputation is a catastrophic injury and an irreversible act that causes inability to support self and drives them toward various psychiatric disorders.

For that, we will provide them with 3D-printed bionic arms that can be continuously customized to satisfy their preferences at an accessible cost. Knowing that only 5% of people with limb differences are fitted with prosthetics, we aim to reach communities that are inaccessible which is why we think existing solutions are not enough to fulfill this urgent need.

That way, children can pursue their education for better life opportunities and adults can get jobs to have better life conditions.

Most of children we are targeting never complete primary school and most of adults we are targeting in developing countries are unemployed and that's due to their physical disabilities which makes them vulnerable and left behind.

Our startup will provide them with affordable and cool bionic arms and therapy but also training in soft and hard skills, by collaborating with local NGOs in their countries, for better life opportunities and standards.

This will allow them to be distinguished from others and to unleash their full potential but most importantly be proud of their differences.

Four years ago, and during a university challenge, I found out that one of my teammates’ cousin was born without her both upper limb and that she couldn’t afford to buy prosthetics. We started a mechanical prosthetics project that didn’t last for so long because of common problems that most startups globally go through

Few months later, I had a jolt of inspiration. An engineering student at the time, I’d been searching for a graduation project that would have a social impact and I decided to restart the same idea—and as I started to research limb loss around the world, he found a massive unmet need. The World Health Organization estimates there are 30 million people with amputated limbs in low-income countries, and only 5% of them have access to prosthetics. During my market research, I visited a local hospital in Tunisia where I met with an 8-year-old child who lost a hand and a leg because of an electric shock. This time, I felt that he was the disabled person since he couldn’t change anything in the life of that kid.

That day, I decided to officially launch CURE BIONICS.

As mentioned in the previous answer, I wasn't passionate about this project when I started it but this passion was found during the project.

In fact, during my market research, I visited a local hospital in Tunisia where I met with an 8-year-old child who lost a hand and a leg because of an electric shock. This time, I felt that he was the disabled person since he couldn’t change anything in the life of that kid and that day, I decided to officially launch CURE BIONICS.

Since that time, this project means a lot to me, I refused to get any other jobs even abroad, I even studied a master degree in management of organization just to learn how to run my startup and to better deliver to my future users.

This project is more than a project for me, it is a belief, a conviction, a life purpose and a passion.

Our project is a mix between tech and organizational approaches and from an academic perspective, I hold a degree in electronics and embedded systems engineering and a master degree in management of organizations which helped me to acquire many skills needed for such project.

I have been part of many entrepreneurial initiatives such as ZETA HUB which is the first private student incubator that I started in my city within a private university group, AGARUW which is a sustainable and eco-friendly fashion tech startup.

I have been part of many international and national programs and networks such as the MEPI Student Leaders program, the Obama Foundation Africa Leaders and the MIT Technology Review 35 Under 35 Innovators.

I hired the best team that believe in the project so I believe I am a good fit for what I am doing and I never doubted that it can fail.

Actually, our perception to challenges and difficulties are different before and after we go through it. We start by feeling the stress and pressure and by struggling but we end up by getting more determinate and more passionate about our project.

Four years ago, we were 5 team members and we worked on a mechanical prosthetics project that didn’t last for so long because of common problems that most startups globally go through. I lost my team, the technical designs and all the credibility that we build for months.

I remember being depressed for more than 3 months. Later on, I decided to stay in Tunisia and took this project as my graduation project for my engineering degree. I pitched my project to my parents and friends to support me financially and technically, I traveled to more than 20 countries seeking for funding and I built everything from scratch.

Today, I have a new team, many international organizations believed in us and supported us with funding, consultancy and training and we will be releasing our public version soon to impact thousands of people in need.

During my life journey, I started to get out of my comfort zone and to explore my capacities community service at the age of 20. Building a library for my local community, renovating a local hospital for children, training marginalized and unemployed women to have their financial sustainability, traveling to more than 25 countries and learning from others about tolerance, love & humanity, mentoring more than 20 young persons about entrepreneurship and education, speaking in more than 50 events locally and internationally to more than 5000 persons to inspire and share, being an Obama Africa Leader, an MIT Innovator Under 35 among some of the most inspiring change makers and inventors globally, leading a team of 10 persons with all the ups and downs to empower thousands of people with disabilities around the world...

All of that isn't enough to call myself the best leader ever but all of that is enough to say that I am an ambitious human who dreams of changing the world in his own way!

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Compared to similar solutions, our bionic arms:
-Are 3D-printed so it takes less than a week to be manufactured contrarily to other prosthetics that can take months to be manufactured and delivered 
-Have adjustable sockets since children grow fast and that will allow them to use their prosthetics for a longer time
-Are fully customizable thanks to removable covers
-Are Controlled with muscles so no need for surgical interventions to connect it with the body
-Are easy to use thanks to an advanced AI algorithm and offer intuitive and effortless usage
-Are equipped with a solar and wireless charger for users with instable or absent electricity coverage
-Are affordable

For our therapeutic solution, it’s:
-Gamified, 3D Motion Tracking Camera and having 3D virtual environment
-Takes less time and money than traditional solutions
-Easily adapted to the patient’s performance
-Mobile and suitable for bed use allowing early intervention
-Trackable
-Can be done from home 
-More efficient since it’s using immersive technologies such as VR and accelerating the rehabilitation
-Providing objective and real time data
-Helping to increase the neural activity in the brain and muscle

Finally, we will collaborate with local NGOs to provide training and capacity building for our beneficiaries to allow them get better skills for better opportunities.

We plan to impact 10 000 persons with limb differences in the next 5 years and this impact is sustainable and will allow them to both get back to school and to get jobs for better life opportunities and conditions.

We are at the beta version stage. We are going through our final medical trial with a community of 20 persons with limb differences and we will be going public to impact 300 persons at least in the next 6 months.

However, we worked on raising awareness about physical disabilities and reached hundred of people around the world.
We trained more than 10 engineers in building prosthetics and we are still doing that.

Our mission it to empower people with limb differences and, in the next 5 years, we plan to empower 100 000 persons with limb differences but big goals needs to be delivered in several milestones.

In the next 6 months, we plan to get our certifications, finalize medical trials and go to market officially in order to impact our first 100 beneficiaries. In the following 18 months, we plan to expand to other countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Morocco and Libya where we will establish partnerships with medical institutions and NGOs in the healthcare field in order to easily scale our impact and after sales follow up and services. In fact, by Knowing that only 5% of people with limb differences are fitted with prosthetics, we aim to reach communities that are inaccessible and to do so, we will have local partners in our target countries who will take care of taking measurements, 3D-printing, assembling, fitting and after sales services. For our therapeutic solution, we are will partner with an international provider of VR hardware such as Google that who can provide us with cost-effective VR headset and so, any user in the world will have can be reached by our solution especially those in rural and marginalized ares knowing that only 50% of people with limb differences can afford healthcare.

We are facing challenges in several levels:

1) Financial: We are working with very limited financial resources which is slowing down our development and scale up.

2) Supply chain: We are struggling to import our supplies since most of it isn't available locally and since shipping takes time and international payment is complicated in Tunisia

3) Legal: There is no legal framework that regulates sales of made-in-Tunisia medical devices neither certifying institutions

4) Strategy: We are having challenges on how to better and more efficient scale go to market and scale up

We believe that each challenge is an opportunity to learn and grow so we started working on solving most of these challenges:

1) Financial: We are applying for more grants and we are in serious discussion with an international Venture Capital

2) Logistics and supplies: We are exploring opportunities to relocate our R&D lab in another country in Europe or USA

3) Legal: We are having a consultancy with Tamimi Law firm to solve this problem

4) Strategy : we are having a consultancy with Deloitte Tunisia in order to have the most efficient business strategy

Currently, we are working with a local hospital in Tunisia and we are trying to establish two extra partnerships with other governmental medical institutions to better reach our target users and to finalize clinical trials.

We are working with “Deloitte Tunisia” who is our strategic and consultancy partner and we are having a consultancy with Tamimi Law firm.

We have Ecole Nationale d’Ingénieurs de Sousse (ENISo) as an academic partner allowing us to access to materials and equipment.

Many international organizations and companies believed in us and supported us with training such as Obama Foundation and SDSN, consultancy such as Deloitte and Tamimi Law form, research and logistics such as ENISo and funding such as Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNDP, Phi Institute of Science, European Investment Bank and the Tunisian ministry of employment.

For the bionic arms (prosthetics), our business model is based on two parts:

-B2B sales for prosthetics through third medical parties such as NGOs in healthcare, clinics, hospitals (the price of our first version is estimated at 2000 USD) since they need to take care of measurement, fitting and after sales

-B2C sales for the prosthetics covers that can be customized and bought in our new online platform (under construction)

For the therapeutic solution, our business model is based on the:

-B2B subscription model

Currently, all of our funding is either personal or in grants and cash prizes. Around 10% is governmental support. Grants and cash prizes are around 70% of our total funding and many international organizations and institutions trusted us and supported us with financial grants such as Tony Elumelu Foundation, UNDP, Phi Institute of Science, European Investment Bank...

For now, we are in serious conversations with investors and with an Egyptian incubator called Falak Startups which is backed by a government VC arm called Egypt Ventures.

We are also studying the possibility of having a crowdfunding campaign to reach our target audience and to collect funds for the next stages.

We believe that according to our financial projections, we can generate around 1 million USD by just selling our first 400 pieces of bionic arms without taking in consideration our VR therapy solution.

We raised funding in the form of grants and cash prizes:

5500 USD from European Investment Bank in 2019

7500 USD from PHI Science Institute in 2019

5000 USD from Tony Elumelu Foundation in 2017

5000 USD from UNDP in 2018

We seek to raise funding of 500 000 USD (grants and equity) by the end of the year for our next milestones.

We have a budget for the expenses and it's estimated to 431 891 USD.

We are applying for The Elevate Prize to support us in solving our challenges such as the financial one through the prize but most importantly through connecting us with investors and donors and strategic one through experts and mentors. Moreover,  we believe that we will gain exposure and network through this opportunity which will help us get partners, future beneficiaries and investors.

We need funding to sustain our operations and to accelerate our development and scale up.

We need advisors and board members to guide and support us.

We need legal and regulatory support since we are working in the healthcare field which has a lot of constraints.

We need support with M&E in order to be efficient and continuously improved.

We need marketing and PR since we want to raise awareness too around people with disabilities.

We would like to work with international clinics and hospitals such as the Hangar clinic in USA, with organizations such as ICRCwith universities such as John Hopkins Harvard and MIT.