The suit started as part of SRI International, the makers of Apple's digital assistant Siri, as part of a program with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) called Warrior Web. This exoskeleton concept aimed at lending superhuman assistance to soldiers hauling heavy backpacks in the field. When a seed investor showed interest in using this technology to help the aging population, Rich Mahoney, CEO and Founder of Superflex Inc, tells Motherboard he realized it was time to take a new, consumer-level approach to the exosuit.