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Nextstep Robotics

Wearable ankle robot for foot drop after stroke

Raised to date

$1M

of $3M offered across 1 Form D filing

Still open
$2M
Investors
5
Last filed
Apr 9, 2026

About

NextStep Robotics is a Baltimore medical device company spun out of the University of Maryland, Baltimore that builds AMBLE, a wearable robotic system for treating foot drop and gait impairment after stroke, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury. The technology is based on roughly a decade of research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the Baltimore VA Motor Performance Laboratory. AMBLE holds FDA clearance as an exercise device for gait therapy in clinical settings, and the company has been pursuing De Novo classification to broaden its therapeutic claims. It was founded in 2017 by Bradley Hennessie, Richard Macko, Larry Forrester, and Anindo Roy, and is headquartered at the University of Maryland BioPark campus in Baltimore.

An 'assist-as-needed' ankle robot that adapts assistance in real time from a shoe-based gait sensor and is priced for clinics of any size, rather than the large capital purchase typical of robotic rehabilitation systems.

Funding

  • Security to be acquiredFiled Apr 9, 2026Form D
    $1M/ $3M

Product

AMBLE

Medical device / wearable robot

A lightweight, untethered wearable ankle robot paired with a shoe-based sensor that detects gait events in real time and delivers graded dorsiflexion assistance to retrain foot lift during therapist-supervised gait training.

  • Real-time biofeedback-driven assistance that adjusts each step
  • Shoe-based sensor tracking steps and gait events
  • Assist-as-needed algorithm that tapers support as the patient improves

Built for

Rehabilitation clinics and hospital neuro-rehab departments treating stroke, spinal cord injury, and traumatic brain injury patients with foot drop

People on file