The autonomous, self-charging companion wheelchair we are developing. It is designed to take patients from the ward to X-ray on its own, so nurses can stay with the people who need them. It will talk with you like a best friend. And like a hybrid car, it recovers energy from braking and sunlight, so it needs charging less often.
Ideation stage: TWalkMate KineCharger is a concept. Features and figures shown are design goals and estimates.
Top 4 of 10,300 entrants, Ideation Stage, Riyadh Global Innovation Summit 2025
KineCharger is compact enough for trams and trains. It drives itself and tells you what is around you, so people who are visually impaired, live with cerebral palsy or another disability can travel independently: to work, to friends, to the coast.
TWALKMATE · SUSTAINABLE FREEDOM
MATEGood morning, Anna. Tram 2 arrives in one minute.
Self-driving navigation, voice control and a companion that describes the way ahead remove barriers that keep many people at home.
360° LiDAR sees what you can't. Your Mate tells you about cyclists, kerbs, crossings and doors, and drives you safely around obstacles.
Born from lived experience: our founder Natasha is a visually impaired wheelchair user herself.
Self-driving and voice commands mean you don't need precise hand control of a joystick to go out on your own.
Fact: cerebral palsy is the most common motor disability in childhood. About 1 in 3 children with CP has limited or no walking ability (CDC).
Long journeys without the effort of steering every metre. The seat rises to eye level and turns 360° for conversations.
Less fatigue, more energy left for the day itself.
From a broken foot to frailty: confidence to go out, a friendly voice on the way, and an alert with your location if something goes wrong.
80 million people worldwide need a wheelchair (WHO estimate).
Every person and situation is different. TWalkMate is a mobility and companion aid, not a medical treatment.
Every routine trip to the lab, X-ray or physiotherapy takes a nurse or porter away from the ward, often to wait. KineCharger drives the patient there safely, waits with them, and brings them back. Your team keeps its hands free for care.
During a visit to an Amsterdam hospital we watched a nurse quietly give up. She had waited with an elderly man for his blood test, minute after minute, until she had to go back and no one else was free to stay. His test didn't happen that day. It was nobody's fault. It was a staff rota with no slack, the same rota that exhausts people across healthcare. Why we started building for hospitals
One chair for the whole patient journey. Patients travel the way their treatment needs, without being moved from chair to bed to trolley and back.
An Emergency Department visit from start to finish. The patient stays in the same chair the whole way, and no one waits for a free porter.
Many disabled people are lonely, and loneliness weighs heavily on mental health. TWalkMate is a companion that is there 24/7. Your Mate chats, knows what you love, suggests the long way through the park, and helps you make real friends in your own neighbourhood.
A warm voice, 24/7Natural conversation, gentle reminders, and ideas for the day, like an ice cream on the sunny side of the square.
Real friends nearbyTWalk Buddies matches you with neighbours who also fancy a cup of coffee, a walk or something else social, abled or disabled.
Speaks and showsYour Mate talks out loud, ideal for people who are blind or visually impaired, and shows everything on screen in words and pictures for anyone who prefers to read or is hard of hearing.
Help in one wordSay “help” or tap once: an emergency alert shares your exact location with the people you choose.
Eye level, every conversationThe seat rises 30 to 60 cm and turns 360°, so you meet people face to face at the bar, the counter or the table.
MateRiding with youFor many wheelchair users the hardest part is not the distance, it is the isolation. TWalkMate works on both: freedom to go out, and someone to go out with.
A hybrid car recovers energy every time it brakes. KineCharger is designed to work the same way, and to add the sun. Its hub motors turn braking and downhill slopes into electricity, solar panels on the wheels add a little extra, and it all flows back into the battery. The aim: less time on the charger, and fewer charge cycles.
Zorgkantoren are the regional care administration offices that carry out the Long-term Care Act (Wlz) in the Netherlands, for example for nursing homes. Hospitals and rehabilitation centres are contracted by health insurers.
Dutch health insurers and zorgkantoren require hospitals, rehabilitation centres, nursing homes and other residential care providers with more than 250 FTE to become demonstrably more sustainable, measured by the Milieuthermometer Zorg.
Required by health insurers and zorgkantoren: demonstrably more sustainable care and the Milieuthermometer Zorg, at least Bronze by 1 January 2028 and Silver by 1 January 2030.
We asked directors and purchasers of hospitals, care homes and rehabilitation centres ten questions about staffing, patient transport, wellbeing, sustainability and how they would acquire a solution like KineCharger.
Buy, lease, or obtain via the municipality or health insurer
Full survey results are available on request for partners and investors.
Rehabilitation centres and care homes let us develop and prove the technology up close with patients, residents and staff, and build reference customers before we scale up to hospitals.
Patients in recovery keep their independence between therapy rooms, and therapists gain useful movement insights.
Residents move freely inside the building and garden, and carers are spared the heavy pushing and lifting.
Fleets of wheelchairs moving patients all day between wards, imaging, theatres and outpatient clinics. The aim: measurable time and cost savings.
Forming development partnerships and securing funding in the Netherlands, with rehabilitation centres, care homes, universities and impact investors. Preparing the first pilots.
Dutch and European hospitals, then Schiphol and international airports, where travellers wait 40+ minutes for assistance.
Streets, stations, museums and high-tech cities worldwide, for millions of wheelchair users.
We plan to lease self-driving, self-charging wheelchairs to rehabilitation centres, care homes and hospitals, with service and maintenance included. Individuals will be able to rent or buy. Because it recovers energy, the aim is a lower energy bill.
Market sizing, business model and financial plan are shared with investors on request.
Request the investor deckSince Riyadh, investors, healthcare groups and smart-city developers across the Middle East have shown strong interest in bringing TWalkMate to their hospitals and cities.
What makes KineCharger different: self-driving care transport, a companion that talks and shows, and energy recovery, brought together in one design.
All views are design concepts from our ideation stage. Specifications are design targets.
Technical specifications are shared with partners under NDA.
My mother, an asthmatic old-age pensioner, pushed me every day, until it started to hurt her too. So I set out to build a wheelchair that would never need to be pushed again. Natasha Booth, Founder & CEO
TWalkMate is a family venture that now reaches from Amsterdam to the Middle East. Hospitals, care homes, investors, engineers and users: there is a place for you.
We make it easy for purchasers: flexible, low risk and measurable from day one.
A few chairs on one ward, with shared results after three months.
Fleet lease with service and maintenance included. No upfront investment.
Full ownership for organisations investing in autonomous mobility.