Member Profile
TRI Cap Portfolio - Touch Bionics 
First Investment July 2007
TRI Cap members have invested in Touch Bionics, the Scottish company whose products include the world’s first commercially available multi-articulating bionic hand, as part of a funding round led by Archangel Informal Investments.
The funding round enabled Touch Bionics to make the shift from product development to the manufacture and marketing of its groundbreaking products in the US: the i-LIMB Hand and ProDigits.
The genesis of Touch Bionics is a program conducted at the Princess Margaret Rose Hospital in Edinburgh from 1963, starting with comprehensive research into developing prosthetic solutions for children affected by Thalidomide. This work has led to a spin-out from the National Health system, with substantial shareholding held by Scottish Health Innovations Ltd, and became the first SHIL spin-out to receive significant funding. An initial SMART award from the Scottish Government got the company going, and it has since received investment funding from existing and new investors, including Archangel Informal Investments and Scottish Enterprise’s Scottish Co-investment Fund.
November 2010
Touch Bionics has won a Best of What’s New Award for 2010 from science and technology magazine, Popular Science, for its ProDigits product.
ProDigits is the world’s first powered prosthetic solution for people with missing fingers. With ProDigits, Touch Bionics extended the technology innovation behind its groundbreaking i-LIMB Hand to create a solution that brings life-changing technology to partial-hand patients. The global population that can benefit from the system is considerable, estimated at around 1.2 million worldwide and, before ProDigits, such people had no powered prosthetic available to them.
More information is available from http://www.popsci.com/bown/2010/product/touch-bionics-prodigits
August 2009
The Rt. Hon. Jim Murphy MP, Secretary of State for Scotland opens the Touch Bionics UK Centre of Excellence, located in Livingston, Scotland.
The Centre offers full clinical services to upper limb amputees, including clinical assessments, recommendations and insurance reimbursement support, as well as occupational therapy and the chance to participate in Touch Bionics’ ongoing research and development projects.
November 2008
The i-LIMB Hand is recognized by TIME Magazine as one of the Top 50 inventions of 2008. Placing 14th on the recently published list, the i-LIMB Hand is in good company alongside projects such as the Large Hadron Collider and the world’s fastest supercomputer.
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July 2008
Touch Bionics’ groundbreaking product, the i-LIMB Hand, wins a 2008 da Vinci Award from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. The da Vinci Awards recognize the most innovative developments and research in adaptive and assistive technology.
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June 2008
The team behind the development of the i-LIMB Hand wins the 2008 Royal Academy of Engineering MacRobert Award, the UK's premier award for innovation in engineering, beating innovations from three other finalist companies.
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May 2008
Touch Bionics acquires the complete operations of LIVINGSKIN, the developer of the unique and lifelike prosthetic skin that Touch Bionics supplies with its ground-breaking product. The acquisition will allow Touch Bionics to fulfil growing customer demand from across the world, while applying its commercial and technical expertise to new cosmesis solutions for multi-articulating hands and digits.
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January 2008
Touch Bionics’ Livingston facility is officially opened by Rt. Hon Stephen Timms MP, Minister of State for Competitiveness and David Cairns MP, Minister of State Scotland Office.
The new facility allows Touch Bionics to bring its manufacturing operations in-house, giving the company greater control over the production output of its business and the ability to support increased demand for its i-LIMB Hand product. The facility also includes patient-fitting areas, which gives patients from countries where the hand is not currently available important access to Touch Bionics’ prosthetists.
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TRI Cap Contact: Anthony Foyle
Number of TRI Cap Investors: 9
Touch Bionics Contact: Phil Newman, MD
Touch Bionics, Oakbank Park Way, Livingston, UK
t: +44 (0) 1506 438556
e: info@touchbionics.com
www.touchbionics.com