Uhura Bionics startup develops wearable speech device — TechCrunch
Startup Uhura Bionics has developed two wearable devices for people who have had their larynx removed and lost their voice. The company’s founder, Konrad Zieliński, lost his own voice to cancer while studying at the University of Warsaw, TechCrunch reports.
A device without surgery
According to Zieliński, people with this condition have traditionally used handheld devices that reproduce speech with a flat robotic sound or surgically implanted voice prostheses. Such prostheses require ongoing care to avoid complications.
Zieliński earned a PhD researching bionic systems for people after laryngectomy, an operation to remove the larynx. While working on his dissertation, he set out to create a non-invasive device that does not require surgery and makes it possible to speak with emotional intonation, laugh, shout and sing.
Models and classification
Zieliński founded Uhura Bionics in 2023. It offers a basic model and a more expensive version called Whitney, named after singer Whitney Houston. The founder hopes that people after laryngectomy will use Whitney in the same way that people with visual impairments use glasses.
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The devices are currently sold as wellness products: the basic model costs $500, while Whitney costs $1,500. Uhura Bionics is working to have the devices classified in Europe, and later in the United States, as Class I medical devices, the category with the lowest level of risk. This could open the possibility of partial reimbursement through health insurance.
Further development
The company plans to add higher-pitched voice options for women and personalization features so that users do not sound the same. Zieliński estimates the market for devices for people after laryngectomy at about $2 billion and believes it could expand if the technology is used for other speech disorders. Among companies in this segment, TechCrunch names Atos Medical and startup Laronix.
Uhura Bionics was included in the Battlefield 200 list for the TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 conference. Zieliński also plans to demonstrate Whitney’s capabilities at SF Tech Week in October, where he is set to sing on stage using the device.
