Bioniks becomes first Pakistani startup to win a Zero Project Award
The Karachi prosthetics maker was one of 77 winners chosen from 522 nominations at the disability rights awards in Vienna.
Bioniks has become the first startup from Pakistan to win a Zero Project Award, the Austrian Essl Foundation's prize for innovations that advance the rights of people with disabilities. Chief executive Anas Niaz accepted the award in Vienna on 7 March 2025, Arab News reported on 12 March.
The company said in a post on X that it was among 77 winners selected from 522 nominations worldwide; the magazine has not checked those figures against the Zero Project's own records. The Zero Project's profile of Bioniks records that the company had sold 700 of its 3D printed, sensor controlled prosthetic arms by mid 2024 and had grown from 15 staff to 50.
“Our mission is to revolutionize the way technology serves the disabled community.”
Niaz dedicated the award to people with disabilities who, he said, deserved the chance to live independently and with dignity. The win follows first prize at the ITU's Robotics for Good Innovation Factory in February 2024 and Niaz's listing on Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia in 2023. Two months earlier the company had announced plans for a mobile limb factory to serve amputees in Gaza; its first Gaza fittings took place in Jordan in July 2025.
