Senseglove gets a feel for VR

Back in 2015, Senseglove co-founders Gijs den Butter and Johannes Luijten were graduate students at Delft University of Technology. As one of their student projects, the duo had the idea to develop a robotic hand that could help stroke victims through rehabilitation while at home. “When you’re paralyzed by a stroke, you need to do a lot of exercises. Most of the time it’s just a physical therapist opening and closing your hand,” comments CEO Den Butter. “We thought it would be way more efficient if the patient could do it in their own time with the help from a robotic hand, because the more training you have, the better you recover.”

Armed with a prototype they developed as students, the pair went to the Yes!Delft high tech start-up incubator to pitch their idea, and in 2017, Senseglove was created. But just three months after launching the business and trying to validate its business model, it became very clear that getting into the therapeutics market, especially for a starting business, was going to be next to impossible.