We set out to build an Iron Man suit. Then we found something bigger. š
Our founders left MIT in 2011 chasing something almost fantastical at the time. An exosuit, think Iron Man without the jet pack, strong enough to lift a car and set it back down. They started looking for a way to move it, and hydraulics was the obvious answer. Except hydraulics are heavy, slow, and they leak. Nothing on the market could do what they needed.
So they invented something new. Beltdraulicā¢ pulls instead of pushes, closer to how a human muscle moves than a hydraulic piston ever could. Once they built it, they realized the actuator itself was the real invention, not the suit around it. Hydraulics is a massive $750B industry that hasn't seen a meaningful breakthrough in decades. They shelved the exosuit and went after that opportunity instead.
I joined later as CEO to leverage my experience at iRobot to commercialize their invention and turn twenty-plus patents and years of R&D into a business. Since then, our work is already showing up as revenue. We have active deployments in defense, a liftgate in pilots, and cylinders actively shipped to customers.
I opened Season 7 of the Henry Harrison Podcast this week, a Dallas-based show covering entrepreneurship, business, and finance, to share this story. You can listen to it here.
Join us in making hydraulics obsolete š¦¾ Invest or increase your investment today ā invest.riserobotics.com
