Instalimb's business is triggered by a diabetic gangrene patient (a patient with rotten leg), that I met in the Philippines as a Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers member, who could not purchase a prosthetic leg.

 At a small clinic in a rural town, which is hardly described as a medical facility, just equipped with a desk, a chair, a stethoscope and a sphygmomanometer, the patient said that he has been a diabetic patient for two years already and showed me his awful foot with a festered toe exposing its bone a bit. I explained to him that  gangrene is dangerous when it spreads to the body. I also explained that he would  be able to do some exercise if he undergoes an   amputation and use a prosthetic leg and that could give him a chance of having a little ease, considering he has diabetes but he just kept nodding and answered nothing.

 Later, I found out that there was no  company producing prosthetic legs at all in that area, and it was impossible to purchase prosthetic leg there. When I visited the clinic again a few weeks later, I found out that he had died.

​ In the Philippines, despite the large number of people getting diagnosed with diabetes, mainly due to poor state of  nutrient intake, the high cost of prosthetic legs is one of the major obstacles.This prevents most of them from getting their prosthesis. Although, in urban areas, there are activities such as donation of prosthetic legs,  yet the number is still not enough to meet the high demand. The reality is that most disabled people who need a prosthetic leg have not been put in a decent job and have been swallowed by the chain of poverty.

 I thought, this is  not just a problem only in the Philippines, but it is also a global  issue. I felt a strong resentment about the reality that there  are a lot of people around the world, such as the diabetes patient with gangrene that I met and how this affected his family members. And in order to solve this problem, I started to develop a methodology of completely new prosthetic leg  which can provide production at low cost.  This is my background and motivation  of starting this business.

 After returning from the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers, I spent four years with my colleagues and completed the development of the new solution that could manufacture a prosthetic leg at a very low price. During the development period, we  had a lot of cooperation and support from various fields and finally we were able to   start the business in the Philippines.

 All the Instalimb employees and I are confident that this can be a solution for the desperate situation  concerning about prosthetic legs in emerging and developing countries around the world.  We can solve this problem and we will continue to work hard to envision a world where they can be resilient against difficulties derived from the ever-expanding population in the emerging countries and the possible rising number of diabetic patients out there, even if they undergo an amputation.