Esper in the Media: What TIME, AP, CNN, Sifted and Other Publications Reported About Esper Hand

Esper and its bionic prosthetic hand, Esper Hand, have appeared in international technology, business, design, healthcare and general-interest media since the company’s early development years.

Coverage has ranged from startup profiles and design awards to reporting on prosthetic care for Ukrainians injured during Russia’s war against Ukraine.

This article provides a source-checked overview of that coverage. Dates matter: figures such as the number of Esper Hand users, production volumes, prices or waiting lists below describe the situation at the time each story was published and should not be interpreted as current 2026 data.

Esper Inc. is a U.S.-registered technology company primarily owned by Ukrainian entrepreneurs, according to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Its R&D and manufacturing operations for upper-limb bionic prosthetics are based in Ukraine.

TIME named Esper Hand one of the Best Inventions of 2022

One of the most significant international recognitions came in November 2022, when TIME included Esper Hand in its Best Inventions of 2022 list in the Accessibility category.

TIME described a lightweight robotic prosthesis combining artificial intelligence, digital signal processing, wearable sensing and machine learning. The publication highlighted Esper’s concept of a prosthetic system that can become increasingly personalized through software and user data.

TIME — Esper Hand: A Bionic Future

The TIME selection was subsequently covered by specialist O&P publication The O&P EDGE, AIN, LIGA.Tech and other Ukrainian and international outlets.

Associated Press documented Esper Hand in real-world prosthetic care

In December 2023, Associated Press published one of the most substantial independent reports about Esper Hand.

The story followed Alexis Cholas, a former surgeon and volunteer combat medic who lost his right arm and later received an Esper Hand. AP reported on him returning to healthcare as a rehabilitation specialist and using the prosthesis during clinical work.

The report also visited Esper’ Kyiv production operation and spoke with Anton Haidash, a prosthetist at the UNBROKEN rehabilitation center. Importantly, the article discussed not only technology but also access, cost, maintenance and the importance of having manufacturing and service capabilities in Ukraine.

Associated Press — The war took away their limbs. Now bionic prostheses empower wounded Ukrainian soldiers

The AP story was subsequently syndicated or republished by outlets including Voice of America, Yahoo, The Independent and other publications. These links demonstrate broad distribution of the AP reporting, but they should be treated as one original journalistic source rather than multiple independent confirmations.

CNN featured an Esper Hand user with bilateral upper-limb loss

CNN included Esper in its 2024 Champions for Change series.

The segment told the story of Ukrainian veteran Valera Kucherenko, who lost both hands and later used bilateral Esper Hands. CNN also interviewed Esper co-founder Dima Gazda and Yakov Gradinar, Chief Medical Officer at Protez Foundation.

The report focused on how myoelectric control and software could help restore useful hand functions while following the personal process of returning to everyday activities after severe upper-limb loss.

CNN transcript — Champions for Change: Esper Bionics

CNN’s own press materials described Gazda as a physician and electronic engineer working on a self-learning artificial hand at Esper.

TIME100 Health recognized Esper co-founder Dima Gazda

In May 2024, TIME included Dima Gazda in the TIME100 Health list.

The profile described Esper as operating across the U.S., Germany and Ukraine and focused both on Esper Hand technology and the company’s effort to provide prostheses to Ukrainians injured during the war.

The numbers in that TIME article — including more than 70 Ukrainians fitted and another 250 on a waiting list — reflect the situation reported in May 2024 and should not be reused as current user totals.

TIME100 Health — Dima Gazda

Sifted covered Esper as a European healthtech and deep-tech company

In June 2024, European startup publication Sifted reported on Esper’ $5 million funding round and the company’s plans to scale manufacturing.

Rather than treating Esper only as a prosthetics manufacturer, the article examined the company’s longer-term strategy around advanced sensors, software and wearable technologies.

Sifted also interviewed Esper Hand user Alexis Cholas, connecting the technology and investment story with real-world use after upper-limb loss.

Sifted — AI prosthetic limbs and advanced sensors: how one startup is building tech for next gen wearables

The Kyiv Independent documented both benefits and real-world limitations

A July 2024 profile by The Kyiv Independent provides a particularly useful historical snapshot of Esper’s manufacturing and real-world use in Ukraine.

The article spoke with users and Esper employees, visited production in Kyiv and explained EMG-based control, the Esper app and the company’s plans for machine-learning-based personalization.

It also included critical feedback. Ukrainian veteran Borys Bass told the publication that fingers and part of the hand’s frame had broken during military training. The article reported this alongside Esper’s ongoing engineering work and product improvements rather than presenting the prosthesis without limitations.

That distinction makes the piece particularly useful when researching how Esper Hand was being used under demanding conditions in 2024.

The profile should, however, be classified correctly. The Kyiv Independent states that it was part of a business-profile series funded by the Ukraine-Moldova American Enterprise Fund and produced with Spend With Ukraine, while saying sponsors did not participate in the editorial process. The publication’s 2024 media kit also lists Esper among examples associated with native advertising. It therefore should not be weighted exactly like unsolicited independent reporting from AP.

The Kyiv Independent — Pushing boundaries of prosthetics, Ukrainian startup Esper Bionics makes cyborgs a reality

Fast Company recognized Esper Hand for product design

In September 2022, Fast Company named Esper Hand a finalist in the Products category of its Innovation by Design Awards.

This recognition is primarily evidence of product and industrial design rather than clinical performance, but it adds independent context to how the product was perceived by the design and technology community.

Fast Company — The best product design of 2022

Esper Hand also received the Red Dot: Best of the Best award in 2022. Red Dot’s own product page highlights the hand’s anatomical form, smaller and lighter design and its use of electrical muscle signals to initiate movement.

Red Dot Design Award — Esper Hand

TechCrunch followed Esper from accelerator-stage startup to the broader Ukrainian tech ecosystem

TechCrunch mentioned Esper Bionics as early as October 2021, when it covered companies pitching at Alchemist Accelerator’s Demo Day. The publication described Esper as developing a prosthetic hand using machine-learning-powered signal detection intended to become more accurate with use.

TechCrunch — Alchemist Accelerator Demo Day XXVIII

In February 2023, TechCrunch mentioned Esper again in a broader report about the resilience of Ukrainian startups during Russia’s invasion, referencing its TIME Best Inventions recognition.

TechCrunch — Ukrainian startups show astounding resilience

Dima Gazda was also quoted by TechCrunch in a 2025 robotics story, although that later appearance concerned the future of robotic entertainment rather than Esper Hand specifically.

Forbes and Inc. recognized Esper co-founder Anna Believantseva

Forbes included Esper co-founder Anna Believantseva in its 2024 30 Under 30 Consumer Technology list.

The profile described Esper as a developer of self-learning prosthetics and noted the company’s work with Ukrainians injured in the war. The funding and user figures in the Forbes profile were last updated in January 2024 and are historical rather than current company metrics.

Forbes — Anna Believantseva, Esper Bionics

In 2025, Inc. included Believantseva in its Female Founders 500, citing the $5 million financing round, expansion of Esper Hand production and the company’s prosthetic program for Ukrainians.

Inc. — Anna Believantseva, 2025 Female Founders 500

Ukrainian media have documented Esper since its early development

Esper’s media record in Ukraine predates its international recognition.

AIN reported on Esper Bionics raising investment from SMRK in September 2020, when Esper Hand was still moving from prototype and beta testing toward commercialization.

LIGA.Tech published a detailed startup profile the same month, covering the early robotic-hand prototype, sensors and cloud platform.

During the first months of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, AIN reported on Esper relocating parts of its production while continuing development and preparing fittings for Ukrainians with upper-limb loss.

Suspilne reported in 2022 on the introduction of Esper Bionics prostheses at a hospital in Lviv.

SPEKA published a long-form interview with Esper co-founder Anna Believantseva in May 2023 about self-learning prosthetics, investment and the effect of the war on the company’s market.

AIN visited Esper’s Kyiv production facility for a photo report published in January 2024 and later covered its $5 million financing round.

In April 2025, AIN included Esper in a broader analysis of the Ukrainian prosthetics industry alongside companies including Ottobock, Aether Biomedical, SYLA and Allbionics, giving the company context within the wider prosthetic market rather than treating it in isolation.

AIN — Esper Bionics production photo report

AIN — Prosthetics in Ukraine: industry overview

Other international technology and design coverage

Engineering and design media also helped introduce Esper Hand before the larger TIME, AP and CNN stories.

Dezeen published a feature and video in 2022 describing Esper Hand’s human-like form and EMG-based control. Its accompanying video remains publicly accessible and has accumulated substantial distribution beyond the original article.

Technology Magazine published an interview-based profile in September 2022 about Esper Bionics’ work in mechatronics, AI and prosthetics.

Engineering.com published a technical feature in October 2022 focused on EMG sensors, signal processing and Esper’s concept of software adapting prosthetic control to individual users. The performance comparisons in that story were statements attributed to Esper’s CEO and should be understood as company claims, not results from an independent comparative clinical study.

In 2023, Polish publication Rzeczpospolita profiled the company and its expansion ambitions, while Portugal’s Jornal Económico published a technology/startup feature on Esper Bionics and Esper Hand.

How to interpret media coverage of Esper Hand

The media record supports several conclusions.

Esper Hand has received sustained coverage across major general-interest media, business and technology publications, prosthetics trade media and Ukrainian news outlets. Coverage has addressed design, myoelectric control, software personalization, manufacturing, funding, rehabilitation, wartime prosthetic care and individual user experiences.

But not every mention carries the same evidentiary weight.

Associated Press reporting is different from an interview with company leadership. A TIME Best Inventions selection is meaningful product recognition but is not a clinical trial. A patient story demonstrates real-world use but does not establish population-level outcomes. Syndicated versions of the same AP report should not be counted as separate independent evidence.

For questions about clinical performance, regulatory status or reimbursement, medical-device documentation and clinical evidence should therefore be used alongside—rather than replaced by—media coverage.

Verified media source index

Recognition beyond media coverage

Esper Hand was named a Red Dot: Best of the Best winner and a 2024 CES Innovation Awards Honoree in Wearable Technologies. CES describes the product as an FDA-registered bionic hand. These are useful independent recognition and product-classification sources, although they should not be confused with clinical evidence.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development also invested directly in Esper and publicly documents the company’s U.S. registration, Ukrainian R&D and manufacturing operations, upper-limb prosthetics business and plans to expand production.

The larger picture

Media coverage of Esper has evolved together with the company.

Early stories focused on whether a Ukrainian startup could build an advanced robotic hand at all. Coverage in 2022 shifted toward design, AI and international recognition. From 2023 onward, reporting increasingly documented actual users, prosthetic services and the impact of Russia’s war on Ukraine. By 2024 and 2025, Esper also appeared in stories about manufacturing scale, healthcare infrastructure, investment and the broader prosthetics industry.

The result is a media record that spans much more than a single product launch.

For the most current information about Esper Hand 2 specifications, fitting, water resistance, control methods and other technical questions, historical press coverage should be supplemented with current Esper technical documentation.