Қазақша
Русский
About one hundred million people in the world need prosthetics. Every year, a million people around the world lose an arm or leg for various reasons. Amputations occur due to diabetes in 54% of cases, due to mechanical injuries in 44% and due to oncology in 2%. According to the Ministry of Health, the annual number of amputation surgeries reaches almost six thousand in Kazakhstan.
Founder and CEO of the CyborgBase platform Madi Zhakypov refers to WHO statistics and claims that nine out of ten amputees on the planet cannot afford auxiliary devices: prostheses, wheelchairs, canes, etc. There is also an acute global shortage of skilled prosthetic professionals. Even though the global prosthetics and orthopedics market is estimated at around $10 billion and is growing by almost 5% annually.
The scale of this problem prompted Kazakh citizen Madi Zhakypov to found the CyborgBase. The design aims to significantly facilitate the lives of people with amputation. At first, the project was meant for Kazakhstan. However, later the idea became global and Zhakypov moved to the USA for its development.
The CyborgBase hit the Kazakh market in February 2023. One of its purposes is to help those in need crowdfund money for prosthetics. Through a special form on the CyborgBase website, users have to send their personal story, documents and photos. Then, the developers will create a profile and generate a personal link to distribute on other sites, social networks and messengers.
We accept donations through Kaspi.kz. Money is not transferred to a person directly, but via the Altair Charity Foundation. Once the necessary amount is collected, the prosthetic center issues an invoice, and we transfer the money directly to the center. This allows to minimize the risks of fraud. We are accountable to donors. "Everything is transparent," Madi Zhakypov assures.
You can also find a qualified doctor or prosthetist through the platform and get an online consultation. You can find and select prostheses from developers from all over the world (they are also presented on the website). You can even get a job – the website has a section with relevant vacancies for people with special needs.
If you are lucky, using the CyborgBase platform, you can obtain prostheses for free. This possibility surprised even Madi.
We had a woman named Ulbolsyn in our care who lost her leg. When we received her data, I wondered if I could find a prosthesis for her. I started looking and found out that about 300 thousand prostheses in the USA are thrown out every year. This is due to health insurance, which allows Americans to renew their prostheses every three years. "Because of their high quality, many prostheses can be used for many more years, but they are gathering dust somewhere instead," Madi shrugs. I thought that we needed to urgently collect them and bring them to Kazakhstan.
Then Zhakypov found an American non-profit organization (NGO) already engaged in collecting used prostheses. He told them about his project and formed a partnership.
“They liked my idea and sent the first batch of prostheses to Kazakhstan. That is how we managed to supply Ulbolsyn a free prosthesis. She only needed 300 thousand tenge for the socket (a special gasket between the stump and the prosthesis made according to individual human parameters – F) instead of millions. We crowdfunded the money in a couple of days. Sometime after the installation of the prosthesis, Ulbolsyn wrote to us that she had won an entrepreneurial grant and started a greenhouse business. This is just one case. Think about how many more people we can help!" Madi exclaims.
Now the American NGO regularly collects used prostheses by the request of Madi. It gives a new life to both devices and their new users. All prostheses are tested and only then sent to new owners.
You can get a used prosthesis for free with a certain luck, of course. It is not always easy to pick a ready-made prosthesis for a specific person. Therefore, to help in the search for prostheses (either new or used), Madi has entered into a partnership with the prosthetic center of Almaty and manufacturers from India, China and Estonia.
Working on the CyborgBase project, Madi regularly met with Kazakh funds, payment factories and investors. He went through start-up accelerations and made numerous presentations. However, many turned their backs: social projects do not interest many people.
Madi realized that it is complicated to fully develop CyborgBase in Kazakhstan after a year and a half of ordeal. The culture of donations is not as widespread as in the West, because the market is small. Social entrepreneurship is perceived as patronage, rather than enterprise.
“Then I realized that the USA is the best place for the development of the project. There are more opportunities, investors, technologies and knowledge. You just have to book a flight. For me it was a very big risk, although I had previously monitored the market, learned how to relocate, and studied legal and financial matters. But I left anyway," Madi smiles. The USA has other values. No matter whom I tell about my project, everyone says, ‘Wow, cool! You're helping people!’ No one asked how much I earn.” the entrepreneur explains.
Since May 2023, Madi has been working in Silicon Valley. He meets with representatives of prosthetic centers to find partners and investors. He established cooperation with Stanford University. Zhakypov's main goal is to propel CyborgBase to the US market and make it a global project. Requests for help are already coming in from other countries. There are already more than 130 people on the waiting list, 80 of whom are from Tanzania. Negotiations are also underway with Ukraine and other countries.
CyborgBase is not Madi’s only project. He founded the Kazakh Charitable Foundation Altair and Avicenna medical information system, which has been operating since 2016. It automates the business processes of healthcare facilities. Analyzes the patient's journey from registration to discharge and allows the hospital management to run the institution more efficiently. More than 50 public and private clinics of Kazakhstan are connected to the system. Madi also plans to bring it to the US market.
The entrepreneur has already spent about $30 thousand on the development of CyborgBase. However, Madi will invest even more and the project is certainly not about making profit. However, earning income from the platform is possible, says Madi.
We will start taking commissions for listing goods and services on the platform once we have implemented a computer-assisted retrieval system, recruited a base of specialists and manufacturers. We will introduce paid consultations. We will also introduce a subscription system through which manufacturers will be able to receive analytics about how many people there are and what prostheses they need now. "In general, we are considering several ways to monetize the project," says Madi.
Currently, Madi is in search of investors. According to his calculations, more than $200 thousand is required for a full-scale launch of the project. The developers plan to make the platform universal so that even people who do not need prostheses, but have health problems, can find the necessary devices – hearing aids, cochlear implants, titanium discs for kneecaps, pacemakers and much more. The platform will also be of interest to prosthetists, because they will be able to order the parts needed for prostheses from all over the world.
Author: Daria Andreeva
A series of interviews with our countrypeople who have achieved outstanding success abroad. In collaboration with Forbes Kazakhstan.
Forbes.kz