Huzaifa Shafiq, a fifth-year Schulich School of Engineering student, is on a mission to make independence available to everyone.
His startup, Dextera, offers both customizable prosthetics and ready-made assistive devices for anyone with mobility or dexterity limitations, specifically in their hands.
With the support of the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, through programs like Launchpad and Business Playbook, Dextera found the foundation it needed to thrive and scale.
The spark behind Dextera
Shafiq has always seen himself as an inventor.
"As a kid, I would break my toys apart and rebuild them," he recalls with a smile. "I was so genuinely curious about how things worked."
Watching TV shows like Teen Titans and characters like its superhero, Cyborg, got Shafiq thinking about technology differently. "Cyborg was a really big inspiration. Seeing how technology could interface with the human body became a huge interest for me."
This fascination followed him all the way to the University of Calgary, where he arrived knowing he wanted to pursue robotics and prosthetics.
As he learned more about the field, he was struck by how underserved the space was. Advanced bionic prosthetics are often expensive and come with long wait times. For some patients finger amputees, specifically options are almost nonexistent.
"It's just not highlighted enough as a problem," Shafiq says. "That's why I wanted to tackle it."
Custom prosthetics and ready-made solutions
The vision behind Dextera is simple.
"The mission is to make everyday independence available to everybody," Shafiq says. "We want people to be able to do the activities that everyone else can do without having to make major compromises."
For him, this means eating dinner with the same silverware as your family, playing the same sports as your friends, or writing with the same pen as your classmates.
Dextera serves people with a wide range of hand-related mobility challenges, including finger amputations, injuries and neurological conditions that affect grip.
"Every single thing in daily life is designed around being able to grab with your fingers," Shafiq says. "A door, a light switch, everything. And yet there are very few companies with solutions for it."
To reach as many people as possible, Shafiq offers two product lines: custom prosthetics and ready-made assistive devices.
The assistive devices, including EatAssist, a palm-worn sleeve with embedded magnets that lets users attach standard silverware, and PenAssist, which enables writing with any pen or pencil, are affordable, off-the-shelf and available immediately, with no wait time and no customization required. Two more devices, CapAssist and CanAssist, landed on the website on April 25th.
Custom prosthetics use 3D scanning and AI-processing models, enabling Dextera to cut costs and turnaround time.
As the business scales, Shafiq is developing a smartphone app that would allow users anywhere in the world to scan their residual limb using the phone's camera. From there, customers would receive a custom-printed device by mail, without the need for an in-person visit.
Most recently, Shafiq secured a consignment deal with Adaptability, a disability equipment store located in University District, just west of UCalgary's main campus.
Shafiq created TrueSwing for Paralympian Zak Madell. Photo Courtesy Huzaifa Shafiq
Creating TrueSwing for Paralympian Zak Madell
A defining moment for Dextera came with the creation of TrueSwing, a device designed for Paralympian Zak Madell.
Shafiq first connected with Madell through a referral. Madell had taken up tennis and, at the time, his solution for holding a racket was taping it to his residual limb.
After meeting with Madell, Shafiq got to work. He worked iteratively, refining the device and testing it under real conditions.
In November 2025, Madell used TrueSwing at the Birmingham National Wheelchair Championship in Vancouver. For Shafiq, the moment was surreal.
"Something I created was actually in the real world, helping someone," he says. "It was inspiring. It motivated me to do more."
Working with an elite athlete also reshaped how Shafiq thinks about durability and performance.
"Watching Zak play showed me the intensity that sport demands, which I hadn't fully accounted for in my early designs," he says. "A device that needs to be replaced after every few games isn't good enough."
TrueSwing is designed to accommodate all racket sports, from badminton to table tennis and more, with durability as a top priority.
Shafiq believes everyone should get the chance to experience the magic of sports.
"I grew up playing tennis every summer with my brother," he says. "Something about sport is that it lets you connect with people on a level that's different from any conversation. You don't have to say a word. Through playing, you build a connection that's really hard to replicate any other way. And we take that for granted."
Landing at the Hunter Hub
For Shafiq, building Dextera forced him to step beyond his engineering background.
Through programs like Launchpad and Business Playbook, Shafiq found the mentorship and entrepreneurial grounding that pushed Dextera from a passion project toward a scalable venture.
"Hunter Hub helped me tap into my entrepreneurial side," he says. "If you can't scale, you won't be able to have the impact you're after.
"I came in thinking I wanted to make the most affordable product while having it perform the best. Mentors at the Hub helped me see that if you're not generating enough capital, you won't be able to keep it going. And keeping it going is what helps people the most."
Looking ahead
In the next two years, Shafiq wants to see Dextera devices on the courts at the 2028 Summer Paralympics in Los Angeles. In the next decade, he wants to be shipping prosthetics worldwide.
"Seeing something I create fit and work for someone is such an indescribable feeling," he says. "It's their reaction that means the most. That's what I want to keep chasing."
