Myomo becoming an innovation leader in technology and business!

Myomo, maker of the MyoPro arm assistive exoskeleton has announced a proposed IPO through new crowdfunding rules called Reg A+ and plan to list on the New York Stock Exchange.  Myomo, Inc., is a Cambridge, MA medical robotics company specializing in myoelectric orthoses for people with neurological disorders that affect the upper extremity.

Earlier this year, Myomo made the genius move of agreeing to be featured as the example product for the SolidWorks 2017 release.  SolidWorks is one of the premiere CAD software for engineering and the MyoPro has now been seen by tens of thousands of engineers through the SolidWorks website and its dozens of distributors.

Now it seems Myomo is making another exciting business move by leading the pack on utilizing new regulation that’s part of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act called Title IV Reg A+.  As part of this regulation, Myomo is allowed to offer securities to the public as a private company while staying private.  So instead of a traditional IPO, it’s a mini-IPO held online through a crowdfunding portal that includes both accredited investors (those who make over $200,000 a year and are the only folks who have traditionally been allowed to invest in private companies) and non-accredited investors (everyone else).

But that is not all, the twist here is that Myomo is working with BANQ to list on the NYSE, legitimizing this as a real IPO that all investors can trade on through the traditional markets. The reason this is the first time non-accredited investors can participate in an IPO like this is because for the last 80 something years they have been protected from investing in private, early stage companies as these are high-risk endeavors.

This will be one of the first times a crowd of non-accredited investors will be able to take part in an early-stage IPO of this kind.  If the Myomo IPO sounds a bit confusing don’t worry, we don’t quite get it all either, but here is a list of useful links to further your understanding:

Explanation on the different routes for accessing the public markets at the NYSE: site “3 WAYS YOU CAN ACCESS PUBLIC MARKETS”

BANQ Myomo Acquisition A+ site with great materials on Myomo

The Myomo corporate site can be found here: www.myomo.com

The Myomo IPO is as intriguing as the company itself.  Initially, Myomo focused on proliferating an upper body rehabilitation exoskeleton developed by MIT.  However, the company came to discover that patients using the device simply did not have enough time to practice with it while at the rehabilitation center.  The additional time needed for the maximum benefit to be observed was not twice or three times as much but a full order of magnitude higher (10 or 100 times).  This is an observation that many rehabilitation exoskeleton companies have now also made regarding their products.

Rather than accepting the fact that patients will not be able to spend enough time with the Myomo exoskeletons, the Myomo team leveraged the practicality and mobility of their device into a personal/home use solution.  This way, rehabilitation patients could finally have the necessary access to the device.  It also created a new application for users who have undergone rehabilitation but have not fully recovered control over their arm.  It is estimated that over 50% percent of people who suffer a paralysis from a stroke never recover their full muscle control.  The MyoPro thus evolved into an assistive device that brings back the use of an arm for everyday tasks.

Another aspect that is interesting about Myomo is that the exoskeletons are custom fitted using a cast of the user’s arm (if they pass initial evaluation).

This company is on the leading edge of upper body assistive exoskeleton technology, they have made some smart marketing decisions in the past and now the proposed Myomo IPO is bound to be a story worth following.