The founder who lost his voice now sells it back at $1,500
Konrad Zieliński, who lost his voice to cancer while a student at the University of Warsaw, founded Uhura Bionics in 2023 to build noninvasive wearable speech devices. The company sells a basic model for $500 and a high-end version called Whitney, named after Whitney Houston, for $1,500. Zieliński estimates the market for devices serving laryngectomees at about $2 billion.
The company was not built around a market gap spotted from outside. Zieliński completed a PhD on bionic systems for laryngectomees and set the target himself: speech with emotion, laughter, shouting, singing. That fixed endpoint now shapes the roadmap, higher-pitched voice options for women and personalization, and the push for Class I medical device status in Europe and later the United States to unlock partial insurance reimbursement.
Source: TechCrunch Startups · September 29, 2026