The destiny of AWAK Technologies was defined in 2006 at the International Society of Nephrology in Los Angeles during a meeting between Dr Gordon Ku and Dr David Lee. The meeting led to the incorporation of AWAK Technologies in 2007 with licensed technology from University of California, Los Angeles. The firm today boasts of offices in Singapore (headquarter) and Burbank, California, and is dedicated to the R&D and marketing of a peritoneal dialysis-based automated wearable artificial kidney (AWAK) for treatment of patients with end-stage renal disease.

This form of peritoneal dialysis is based on sorbent regenerated dialysis fluid.

The company was founded by Dr Gordon Ku, chairman of Kidney Dialysis Foundation, Dr Lee and Dr Martin Roberts from the US Department of Veterans Affairs Healthcare System and the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA, and Mr Neo Kok Beng, adjunct associate professor of marketing, National University of Singapore.

Dr Roberts and Dr Lee are co-inventors of the technology, which was exclusively licensed by the University of California at Los Angeles and the Department of Veteran Affairs to AWAK Technologies.

The revolutionary peritoneal "wearable artificial kidney" is meant for kidney failure patients. It offers freedom to end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients, enabling them to be gainfully employed, to travel and to do things in life as they did before kidney failure. AWAK Regular Cartridge and Cycler, weighing one kilogram and fully battery-operated, provides patients with 24x7 dialysis.