Blue Arbor Technologies and German prosthetics company Ottobock have partnered to advance clinical and commercial activities for the former’s prosthetic control system for people with limb loss.
Under the strategic pair-up, Ottobock has invested $5m into Blue Arbor – establishing it as the lead investor in the Michigan-based company’s Series A financing round – and will take up a seat on Arbor’s board of directors.
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Blue Arbor’s RESTORE is an implantable neuromuscular interface system (NIS) that directly connects advanced prostheses to a patient’s residual muscles and peripheral nerves. Signals from Restore NIS’s electrodes are processed using Restore’s external sensing unit to give patients simultaneous control of their prosthetics’ fingers, wrists, and elbows.
Early feasibility trials of the Restore system have demonstrated stable motor signal capture for over five years.
Blue Arbor CEO Tod Borton commented: “The RESTORE system is about restoring intuitive, volitional movement – not asking patients to adapt to technology but designing technology that adapts to human biology.”
According to Blue Arbor, Ottobock’s investment will drive momentum for the next phase of the Restore system’s clinical validation, product development, and commercial readiness.
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By GlobalDataThe partnership follows the first-in-human implantation for RESTORE’s external sensing unit by surgeons at the Medical University of Vienna in December 2025. Restore NIS’s electrodes were implanted into multiple targeted muscle reinnervation sites, demonstrating the system’s functional capabilities with a prosthetic developed by Ottobock.
“Blue Arbor’s neuromuscular interface represents a highly promising innovation for the next technological leap in prosthetic control – one that aligns perfectly with our mission to enhance human mobility through meaningful innovation,” said Ottobock CEO Oliver Jakobi.
“We were impressed by their [Blue Arbor’s] first-in-human case at the Medical University of Vienna and are excited to partner with them as they move into clinical trials.”
Restore gained breakthrough device designation from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and acceptance into the FDA’s total product life cycle (TPLC) advisory program pilot in April 2024.
Launched in 2023, the FDA’s TPLC pilot is a US Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) initiative designed to accelerate patient access to innovative medical devices by providing early, frequent, and strategic engagement between developers and the agency.
