Wheeling And Dealing: WISC companions to invest up to $1.5M In Rowheels
all over a 2011 sailing go back and forth, Rimas Buinevicius sustained a spiral fracture to his leg that landed him in a wheelchair for greater than two months.
It used to be his first time the use of a wheelchair for an extended length, and he says he was once determined to not let the damage sideline him totally.
“I had numerous bravado,” Buinevicius says. “I was going to wheel around for 10 weeks and maintain my train degree, no drawback.”
however ahead of long, his can-do attitude started out to wither.
“I found out after a pair days that pushing a wheelchair puts a lot of pressure on shoulders,” he says. “After three or 4 days, I began feeling ache and soreness. i thought, ‘Now i’ve a leg downside and a shoulder downside.’”
An engineer by way of coaching, Buinevicius says he commenced doing research to decide whether or not anyone was once working on an alternative design.
One idea that caught his eye was once the work of Salim Nasser, a mechanical engineer at NASA’s Kennedy area center in Florida. Nasser’s idea was once for folks to propel themselves with the aid of pulling back the edges hooked up to a chair’s rear wheels, as a substitute of pushing the rims ahead. The action is much like rowing a boat, therefore the identify Nasser and Buinevicius chose for the company they co-based in 2012: Rowheels.
The Fitchburg, WI-based startup, which set out to do nothing lower than reinvent the wheel, started selling its first edition of wheels in February. Rowheels claims its alternative wheelchair design gives well being benefits, including strengthening upper again and shoulder muscle tissue that get left out with the aid of the pushing motion used with traditional wheelchairs, improving posture, and potentially reducing the danger of ache or damage.
today, Rowheels takes another step ahead. the corporate introduced that the venture capital agency WISC partners will make investments as much as $ 1.5 million in Rowheels as a part of its sequence A funding spherical. Buinevicius says the brand new financing will lend a hand bolster Rowheels’s sales and advertising efforts, and allow the corporate to proceed creating a second model, aimed toward a fairly older and not more bodily lively demographic.
Launching an organization
Like Buinevicius, Nasser’s need to support the practice of the use of a wheelchair comes from non-public expertise. but for Nasser, it’s been a day by day expertise because the mid-Nineties, when he used to be two decades previous. That’s when a under the influence of alcohol driver ran a stop signal and crashed into Nasser’s automotive, leaving him with a devastating spinal twine damage, Buinevicius says.
Nasser soon regained some arm and shoulder energy, however nonetheless required a wheelchair to get round. That hasn’t stopped him from embarking on a profession direction that will be impressive for almost any person, ready-bodied or otherwise. He earned bachelors and masters levels from Florida global university, during which era he first explored the idea that that might transform Rowheels, Buinevicius says.
Then, in 2007, Nasser took a job with NASA, where he designs and analyzes ground hardware used to assist house shuttles take off. After settling in, he decided to revisit his thought for a wheelchair that could be moved ahead via a rowing movement. He constructed a prototype, which captured the grand prize on the space agency’s 2010 “Create the longer term” design contest.
profitable the award led to publicity, and then to inquiries from producers enthusiastic about pursuing Nasser’s thought additional. however he didn’t chunk on any of the bargains.
Then Nasser bought an e mail message from Buinevicius, who used to be likewise playing a a success profession. He had stepped forward from engineering work to business college to Sonic Foundry (NASDAQ: SOFO), a Madison, WI-based totally firm that helps customers movement video and take care of content. Buinevicius served as CEO of Sonic Foundry for more than a decade ahead of departing in 2011.
Nasser decided to go into industry with Buinevicius, with Nasser serving as chief expertise officer and Buinevicius taking the function of CEO.
whereas Nasser continues to are living in Florida—the place he squeezes in his Rowheels … subsequent page »
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