Proception Inc

What do they actually do

Proception builds ProHand 1.0, a research‑grade robotic hand with 20+ degrees of freedom, integrated tactile and joint sensing, and real‑time control. They are preparing to ship units to research customers and are actively working with early partners to validate durability, sensing quality, and control software ProHand, YC profile.

Alongside the hardware, they collect human demonstration data using a wearable glove plus vision to train manipulation models that run on the hand. Public demos focus on precise, contact‑rich tasks (e.g., needle‑threading‑style manipulation) as proof points of dexterity Master Plan, YC profile, demo video.

Who are their target customer(s)

• Academic robotics and manipulation labs: Need reliable, instrumented dexterous hands without building custom rigs; struggle with fragile prototypes, inconsistent tactile data, and long integration cycles.
• Corporate R&D and advanced manufacturing teams: Prototyping fine assembly or service tasks requires controllable, human‑like manipulators; lab algorithms often fail on real hardware and integrations take months.
• Haptics and prosthetics researchers: Require high‑fidelity touch/joint data and repeatable hardware; sourcing and instrumenting hands in‑house is slow, costly, and hard to maintain over time.
• Robotics startups building manipulation or teleop stacks: Need off‑the‑shelf dexterous hardware and synchronized tactile+motion demonstrations; lack affordable ways to collect large, high‑quality datasets for ML training.
• AI labs and dataset teams focused on tactile‑aware learning: Vision‑only datasets are insufficient for contact‑rich tasks; need real‑world tactile demonstrations and hardware for sim‑to‑real validation.

How would they acquire their first 10, 50, and 100 customers

• First 10: Convert the existing waitlist and known tactile/manipulation researchers with discounted pilot units and hands‑on integration support in exchange for feedback, data sharing, and early case studies ProHand, YC profile.
• First 50: Show live demos at key robotics conferences, co‑publish datasets/papers with early pilots, and turn those relationships into short, paid pilots with defined support and data agreements Master Plan, ProHand.
• First 100: Offer structured commercial pilots for manufacturing/prosthetics teams bundling the hand, a glove+vision data stack, and cloud model access; add field engineers and a partner/reseller channel to reduce integration time Master Plan, ProHand.

What is the rough total addressable market

Top-down context:

Top‑down: the multi‑fingered dexterous hand market is estimated at about $524M in 2024 360iResearch. Adjacent touch/tactile sensors are far larger (~$15–16B in 2024), and humanoids are forecast at ~$4B to ~$15B by 2030 with longer‑run upside Verified Market Research, GM Insights, Grand View Research, MarketsandMarkets, Morgan Stanley.

Bottom-up calculation:

Near‑term research/SAM: if 600–1,200 qualified labs and R&D groups globally and ~25% buy 1–2 hands at $50k–$100k per unit, that implies roughly $7.5M–$60M in annual hardware demand, with additional upside from early corporate pilots and support/services.

Assumptions:

• 600–1,200 relevant global labs/R&D groups working on dexterous manipulation or haptics.
• Adoption of ~25% over initial years; 1–2 units per buyer.
• Average unit price range of $50k–$100k; services not included.

Who are some of their notable competitors

• Shadow Robot Company: Maker of the Shadow Dexterous Hand, a widely used research‑grade anthropomorphic hand with tactile options; established brand in academic labs.
• SCHUNK (SVH 5‑Finger Hand): Industrial robotics supplier offering the SVH 5‑finger hand; strong integration with industrial ecosystems and service channels.
• Wonik Robotics (Allegro Hand): Provider of the Allegro Hand, a popular, relatively affordable multi‑finger research hand used for manipulation research and education.
• Barrett Technology (BarrettHand): Developer of the BarrettHand (BH series), a longstanding adaptive robotic hand with research and industrial deployments.
• Figure AI: Humanoid robotics company targeting enterprise tasks; potential future competitor if dexterous manipulation becomes a core differentiator.