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Phantom Neuro

Phantom Neuro

Peripheral Nerve Intelligence

Andrew Kuzemczak
July 08, 2025

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TL;DR

Phantom Neuro is redefining neurotech by bypassing brain implants and instead tapping into the peripheral nervous system with a minimally invasive implant—Phantom X—that offers intuitive, real-time control of robotic prosthetics.
Amputees face limited mobility, poor prosthetic adoption, and soaring healthcare costs. Phantom’s solution could restore not just movement, but autonomy and dignity to millions of people worldwide.
With strong early data, FDA fast-tracks, and $28M in funding, Phantom Neuro is positioning itself at the forefront of a fast-growing market—offering a smarter, safer, and more scalable alternative to brain-computer interfaces.

Hi friend,

Welcome back to Future Human! Wedding season is almost behind me—just one more to go. Last week’s ceremony went beautifully, and the celebration afterward was even better. The best man speech (a joint performance with my other best friend) went off without a hitch. Sure, maybe we could’ve trimmed it a bit, but every story deserved its moment in the spotlight. All in all, it was an honor to be part of my second wedding party and to toast the lovely couple.

Now for our dive! For newsletter #20, we are taking on our third neurotech startup. This one, however, takes a wildly different approach to connect human to prosthetic. No touching the brain and no need for a neurosurgeon. Quite the high-speed approach

So with that, let me ask you:

In the world of prosthetics, what if the real breakthrough in restoring human movement doesn’t come from decoding brainwaves or drilling into skulls—but from tapping into the rich, untapped signals sitting just beneath our skin?

The Story

Before he ever imagined building a neurotech company, Dr. Connor Glass found himself sitting alone in the back of what cadets called the “injury van”—his military dreams sidelined by stress fractures that kept piling up. It was a quiet, disorienting moment: the kind that derails a life plan. But it also planted the seed for something bigger. That feeling of being trapped in a body that wouldn’t cooperate—of watching your future slip just out of reach—never left him. Years later, it would become the driving force behind Phantom Neuro, a company on a mission to give people back control over their own movement.¹^,³

That mission would eventually take shape as Phantom Neuro, a future-focused neurotechnology company spun out of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and now based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 2020 by Glass—a physician with a background in plastic surgery, neuroengineering, and peripheral nerve research—the company is developing the world’s first minimally invasive muscle-machine interface to control robotic prosthetics and exoskeletons.¹^,²

During medical school at the University of Oklahoma, Glass became fascinated by reconstructive surgery and the promise of restoring physical function. That interest deepened during a two-year research fellowship at Johns Hopkins, where he worked on advanced neuromuscular microsurgery and observed early brain-computer interface (BCI) experiments. Side note—I remember when I first watched and read up on the prosthetic research at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Lab. Truly life changing experience with just one video and some articles. Seems it was also transformative for Glass, but for him the setups were anything but practical.

“I saw a room filled with wires, scaffolding, and a team of PhDs, all focused on a single demonstration…It wasn’t scalable. It wasn’t realistic”

Connor Glass, MD, Founder of Phantom Neuro

That moment sparked a new idea: what if, instead of going directly to the brain, we leveraged the peripheral nervous system—something more accessible, safer, and already within reach of tens of thousands of trained surgeons? That insight became the foundation of Phantom Neuro.

Today, the company’s flagship device, Phantom X, is a minimally invasive neural interface implanted just under the skin during a routine outpatient procedure. Compared to complex brain implants, this approach is safer, simpler, and dramatically more scalable. And the need is urgent: hundreds of thousands of Americans lose limbs every year, and even more live with musculoskeletal disabilities.

Phantom Neuro recently closed a $19 million Series A funding round—led by global prosthetics and exoskeleton leader Ottobock—with participation from Breakout Ventures, Draper Associates, LionBird, Time BioVentures, and others, bringing total funding to $28 million.⁴^,⁵

Behind the scenes, Phantom is guided by an impressive lineup of advisors, including Dr. Geoff Ling, founding director of DARPA’s Biological Technologies Office; Dr. Thomas Oxley, CEO of Synchron; leaders from Blackrock Neurotech, Verily, and CTRL-labs; and several clinicians and engineers at the forefront of human-machine integration.¹^,³^,⁶

The Tech

Phantom Neuro isn’t just building devices—they’re rebuilding the connection between mind and machine. At the heart of their technology is Phantom X, a next-generation muscle-machine interface designed to give people with limb loss not only movement, but control that feels intuitive, responsive, and real.

Unlike brain implants, which require complex neurosurgery and highly specialized teams, Phantom X is implanted just under the skin in a simple outpatient procedure—something any one of the 70,000 surgeons trained in basic cosmetic techniques could perform. This low-profile sensor system features embedded electronics that pick up the user’s muscle activity and translate it into seamless movement, allowing for faster recovery, broader access, and less risk.¹^,³

Now you may ask: how well does it work without direct brain implantation? In Phantom Neuro’s ASCENT study, Phantom X achieved 94% gesture decoding accuracy across 11 common hand and wrist movements—including opening and closing a fist, pointing, giving a thumbs up, and rotating the wrist. That level of precision translates to real-time, natural movement, with average response times clocking in under 200 milliseconds—fast enough to feel instantaneous.³

Even in its early stages, Phantom X has outperformed many of the industry’s leading surface-based systems. With just ten minutes of calibration, the implant can restore up to 85% of a user’s hand and wrist functionality—and unlike most prosthetics on the market today, it doesn’t require daily recalibration.

This isn’t just a leap in user experience—it’s a correction to a long-standing problem. A 2020 survey found that fewer than 21% of individuals with upper-limb loss actually use robotic prosthetics, while nearly 75% rely on outdated body-powered hooks—technology that has barely evolved since the Civil War. Even among those who try robotic limbs, nearly half abandon them, citing inconvenience and limited functionality.³^,⁷

Phantom Neuro’s answer is not only technical, but also regulatory. The company recently received both Breakthrough Device Designation and the coveted TAP (Targeted Acceleration Pathway) Designation from the FDA—a rare dual endorsement that fast-tracks development and opens up early discussion with the agency, smoothing the path to commercialization.⁸

What makes Phantom X truly unique is its underlying control system. Using signal processing and machine learning algorithms, the system converts muscle signals into digital commands for robotic movement, with no perceptible delay between intention and action. It works across today’s commercially available robotic limbs, acting as a plug-and-play upgrade that finally brings out their full potential.

The Market

The robotic prosthetics market is undergoing a dramatic transformation—one fueled by medical need, breakthrough innovation, and a growing population of people eager to reclaim physical independence.

Globally, the robotic prosthetics market was valued at $1.4 billion in 2022, and it's not slowing down. Analysts project a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.8% through 2030, driven by advances in artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and the growing demand for customized bionic limbs. As the technology improves, so does the expectation: people no longer want prosthetics that simply replace form—they want devices that restore function and precision.

That demand is being shaped by urgent medical realities. In the U.S. alone, more than 2.1 million people are living with limb loss, largely due to chronic illnesses like diabetes, peripheral artery disease (PAD), and cancer. And the challenge isn’t going away—chronic diseases now account for 71% of deaths globally, with cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes leading the charge (readers of Future Human have heard this one too many times). As these conditions rise, so too will the need for high-performance, next-generation prosthetics.

Lower-limb amputations currently dominate the market, making up 56.4% of robotic prosthetics sales as of 2022, and are expected to grow at a rate of 9.0% annually. This trend is especially prevalent in North America, which holds the largest share of the global market at 43.2%.¹⁰

Those leaders include companies like Ottobock—one of the most influential names in the field and the lead investor in Phantom Neuro’s $19 million Series A. Others shaping the market include Touch Bionics, Össur, HDT Global, and Shadow Robot Company.

What sets Phantom Neuro apart in this competitive field is its focus on the peripheral nervous system, rather than the brain. While companies like Neuralink, Blackrock Neurotech (a Phantom investor), Synchron (whose founder advises Phantom), and Precision Neuro are pushing the boundaries of brain-computer interfaces, Phantom is betting on a safer, simpler, and more scalable approach.

As the neurobionics sector expands, Phantom Neuro is carving out a distinct path—one focused on minimally invasive interventions with equivalent, if not better, outcomes.

The Sick

Every year in the United States, around 150,000 people undergo a lower extremity amputation—a life-altering procedure. For many, it’s not just the loss of a limb—it’s the loss of mobility, independence, and identity.¹¹

Diabetes mellitus plays a devastating role in this reality. It’s present in 82% of all vascular-related lower limb amputations and increases a person’s lifetime risk of amputation by 30-fold. As the diabetes epidemic continues to rise, so does the threat of amputation—particularly for aging populations and those with limited access to early intervention.¹²

But the consequences of amputation aren’t just physical—they’re deeply personal. Above-knee amputees face a 49% increase in energy expenditure, and for those with bilateral amputations, that number can skyrocket to 280%, making everyday tasks feel like uphill battles. Amputees must contend with prosthetics that often don’t fit well, are heavy or cumbersome, and fail to replicate even basic functions like grasping, rotating the wrist, or adjusting grip strength.⁷^,¹¹^,¹²

Upper limb amputees face an entirely different set of challenges. Trauma is the leading cause of upper extremity amputation, particularly in men aged 15 to 45, followed by cancer and vascular disease. Despite advances in prosthetic technology, dissatisfaction remains high. Many users either abandon their devices altogether or use them infrequently, citing poor fit, comfort, and limited functionality as barriers. Powered wrist movement and multiple grip patterns are among the most requested features—yet, even among veterans with access to the most advanced devices, satisfaction is no higher than with older-generation tech.

This is where Phantom Neuro comes in.

By focusing on the peripheral nervous system—the electrical signals traveling through muscle tissue—Phantom Neuro’s Phantom X platform sidesteps the complexity and risk of brain implants. Instead, it offers a minimally invasive, outpatient solution that reads a user’s natural muscle signals and translates them into real-time movement. This creates an interface that feels intuitive, precise, and refreshingly simple.³

Phantom X isn't just about restoring motion—it’s about restoring dignity, autonomy, and agency. For patients who’ve been forced to adapt to technology that doesn’t understand them, Phantom Neuro is creating a system that listens, learns, and responds in kind.

As the population ages, chronic diseases rise, and trauma remains unpredictable, the need for smarter, more human-centered prosthetic solutions will only grow. Phantom Neuro is building for that world.

The Economy

The economic burden of limb loss is massive—yet often underestimated. While there’s no single source that captures the full cost of amputation across healthcare, productivity, and quality-of-life dimensions, the available data paints a clear picture: limb loss is not just a medical issue, it’s a long-term financial crisis for individuals and society.

One widely cited projection estimates that the lifetime healthcare cost for a lower extremity amputation patient is $509,275. This figure, while debated due to limitations in modeling, points to the recurring expenses of prosthetics, follow-up surgeries, rehabilitation, and complications. The assumption in that projection includes a prosthetic replacement every 2.3 years—highlighting not only the durability challenges of existing devices, but also the long-term financial drain placed on patients.¹³

Patients with diabetes contribute to a particularly costly segment. In the U.S. alone, the economic burden associated with diabetic amputations is estimated at over $4.3 billion annually. For Medicare beneficiaries with diabetic foot ulcers—a major precursor to amputation—yearly reimbursements total around $33,000, including 14 outpatient visits and 1.5 hospitalizations per year.¹¹^,¹⁴

But the economic impact doesn’t stop at healthcare spending. Productivity losses from traumatic injury—including amputations—are even more staggering. A 2006 CDC study estimated that injury-related work losses in the U.S. totaled more than $300 billion annually, nearly four times the direct medical costs. Return to work is one of the strongest indicators of both physical recovery and economic reintegration—and right now, too many amputees are being left behind.¹⁵

Research shows that about 73% of patients who undergo amputation eventually return to work, typically after a delay of 14 months. For some, the delay is even longer, or permanent. Among patients with severe leg injuries, one review found that while 60% eventually resumed their prior work, unemployment rates nearly doubled post-injury.¹³

Phantom Neuro is working to reverse this trend. By designing a simple, intuitive, and minimally invasive neural interface, the company aims to reduce prosthetic abandonment, speed up recovery timelines, and ultimately improve quality of life. A prosthesis that responds naturally to a user’s intention doesn’t just feel better—it may reduce therapy sessions, require fewer replacements, and make daily tasks less physically taxing.

The real economic impact of Phantom Neuro may be hard to quantify in a single figure. But if their technology helps more people regain mobility, confidence, and productivity sooner, the ripple effects across families, healthcare systems, and the workforce could be profound.

My Thoughts

To dive into such a meaningful topic, spearheaded by such an effective team, was an honor for all of us here at Future Human. I have mentioned many times before that hardware innovation scratches a specific section of my mind that few things can reach. To have that hardware serve a population as deserving as amputees makes it all the more exciting.

Future Human has now covered three neurotech startups. I won’t say one is any more amazing than the other, but I will say that minimally invasive approaches, like targeting peripheral nerve circuits, has continued to prove most successful in a variety of medical specialties. I am confident Phantom Neuro will only further support this trend.

I look forward to following Dr. Glass and his team closely as they return some normalcy to amputees around the world.

To more lives saved,

Andrew

I always appreciate feedback, questions, and conversation. Feel free to reach out on LinkedIn @andrewkuzemczak.