Mobility start-ups work with MaRS and Toyota to fuel their expansion

TORONTO – Start-ups in the healthcare sector often find that no company is an island – it takes partnerships and collaboration to launch and grow. That’s been the experience of many participants working with the Toyota Mobility Foundation and the MaRS Discovery District.

Toyota and MaRS have been nurturing a cohort of six small companies in the health mobility sector, creating the ‘Mobility Unlimited Hub’. The project has been so successful, they’re adding 10 more companies this year.

The current cohort includes the following companies:

• Axtion Independence Mobility Inc., which launched pre-orders in the U.S. and Canada for the RAYMEX Lift after receiving its establishment registration and device listing from the US FDA and its Medical Device Establishment License from Health Canada earlier this year.
• Braze Mobility Inc., a company producing blind-spot sensors for wheelchairs. The sensors automatically detect obstacles, enabling users to avoid collisions – saving themselves from injury and embarrassment. Braze has received two patents, helping them expand into Europe and scale in the U.S.
• Trexo Robotics Inc., which devised a robotic exoskeleton that helps kids with disabilities walk at home or in their neighborhoods. Its users have now surpassed 100 million steps.
• AWL-Electricity showcased its wireless charging solution, the Agile Station, at the Paris Para games in partnership with WHILL France, accelerating their entry into international markets.
• Deaf AI trains machines with AI to do sign language to make the real-world more inclusive for people who only communicate in sign language. The company secured key partnerships, including with the Kanata North Business Association, as well as international speaking engagements.
• Cheelcare is raising $3.5 million and will be publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange following its reverse takeover of Departure Bay Capital Corp. The company produces advanced wheelchairs and other products for the rehab mobility market.

“Our partnership with Toyota and MaRS has been a game-changing experience,” said Tracey McGillivray, CEO of Axtion Independence Mobility, a maker of a chair-like lift that helps people get up after falling and also prevents falls.

Called the RAYMEX Lift, the device functions as a portable walker and helps seniors get around and carry out their daily tasks. But in the event of a fall, a platform can be button-activated and lowered to the ground.

The person who fell can shimmy onto the platform, and the platform will raise them to a sitting position.

From there, if they wish, they can use hand supports to raise themselves to a standing position.

The device can also be used by people to stabilize themselves when in a sitting position, to prevent falls when they’re trying to get up.

It’s a unique product, and it has been in development since 2019, when McGillivray decided to create a device to solve the problem of people who are immobilized by falls.

She was inspired by her own father, who began experiencing falls at that time.

With an engineer partner, Liam Maaskant, along with her orthopedic surgeon brother and a team of skilled employees, Axtion began to produce a series of prototypes. It’s the sixth prototype that’s being marketed, beginning this year.

Not only is the RAYMEX Lift helpful for patients, but it’s also extremely useful for hospital workers. When attempting to lift patients off the floor, many of them injure themselves – resulting in time off work and significant costs to the healthcare system.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the U.S. estimates that there are up to one million falls per year in US hospitals each year. The falls affect both patients and the healthcare workers attempting to help them, as injuries – such as back strain and pulled muscles – from lifting fallen patients are quite common.

The partnership with MaRS and the Toyota Mobility Foundation has been instrumental to the company’s success, said McGillivray. They received seed funding of $50,000, which she said was a significant help in getting things off the ground and creating momentum.

Axtion and five other Canadian mobility start-ups in the program will each receive another $50,000 this year in renewed support; moreover, the program is expanding, and 10 more participants will receive $100,000 each as they participate in a two-year program.

Toyota also helped Axtion enter the Japanese marketplace, where the company is working to sign a licensee to manufacture and distribute in Japan and other parts of Asia.

McGillivray noted that being part of the group has been invaluable, as the partners have shared valuable knowledge.

“The other companies have been at it a little longer than us, and they’ve been generous in sharing their expertise,” said McGillivray. In particular, they helped her understand the process for regulatory documentation in the United States, helping Axtion to move ahead with its plans there.

Based in Nova Scotia, the RAYMEX Lift team worked out of Dalhousie University’s Emera ideaHUB, where it developed its initial prototypes. McGillivray notes that partners in Atlantic Canada were also critical to the development of the lift.

The RAYMEX Lift will sell for about $5,500 – that includes hardware, software and its power system. McGillivray said the price is comparable to a power wheelchair and many other lifts on the market.

Moreover, the innovation doesn’t stop. The company will soon combine the functions of lift and wheelchair – a product that it’s coming out with next year.

And it has an even more advanced project in the works, an autonomous lift that can come to the assistance of a person who has fallen. It can be activated by a watch or pendant. “If you fall, and you need help, it can come to you,” said McGillivray.