Make wishtv.com your home page

Startup focused on amputee recovery receives funding

Founder Marissa Koscielski, courtesy of the University of Notre Dame

SOUTH BEND, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) -South Bend-based Enlighten Mobility is receiving $20,000 from Elevate Ventures to develop two prototypes. The University of Notre Dame-affiliated startup works with amputees, helping them to learn to use artificial limbs significantly earlier in their recovery.

The funding is through Elevate’s Community Ideation Fund and made possible through a partnership with Startup South Bend-Elkhart.
 
Enlighten Mobility was founded in 2017 by Marissa Koscielski five years after she was hospitalized for paralysis. During that time, she says physicians told her she may never walk again. Koscielski designed what she calls a “contraption” from spare equipment and was able to design a device to help her walk again.

Now extensively refined and called the Enlight Gait Trainer, the current device can put amputees back in motion within days of surgery rather than the typical months or years, which the organization says leads to a more complete recovery.
 
“The status quo is failing our patients,” Koscielski said. “With the Enlight Gait Trainer we empower our patients to maximize their potential.”
 
Koscielski improved the design while at the University of Notre Dame completing a bachelor’s degree in math and a master’s in science and entrepreneurship in the university’s ESTEEM Program. Enlighten Mobility is headquartered at Innovation Park the University of Notre Dame.