ForSight Robotics Secures $125M Series B Funding to Advance ORYOM™ Ophthalmic Surgical Robot Toward First-in-Human Trials

June 24, 2025, Ophthalmic Surgical Robotics CompanyForSight RoboticsAnnouncement Completed$125 million (approximately RMB 900 million) Series B financingLed by Eclipse Ventures, with participation from multiple existing shareholders and strategic investors. This round of financing will be used to advance the first human clinical trials of its core platform—the ORYOM™ ophthalmic surgical robotic system—and accelerate technological expansion for indications such as cataracts, glaucoma, and retinal diseases. Since its establishment, the company's cumulative financing has reached$195 million。

Against the backdrop of a continuous decline in the global supply of ophthalmologists and an expanding population with vision impairment, the company is attempting to provide a structural alternative for delicate ophthalmic procedures through a robotic surgical approach.

# The Precision Dilemma in Ophthalmic Procedures

Globally, there are currently over 600 million people suffering from cataracts, but only about 30 million undergo surgery each year. Even in the resource-rich United States, the number of surgeries performed annually is only around 4 million. Meanwhile, on average, there are only 31.7 ophthalmologists per million people worldwide, with merely 14.1 cataract surgeons; it is projected that by 2035, the number of doctors will decrease by 12%, while the demand will increase by 24%.

The core challenge of ophthalmic surgery lies inSub-millimeter operational precision, high repeatability process requirements, and structural characteristics highly dependent on the operator's skills. Cataract surgery, for example, is usually confined toWithin 5 millimeters, the capsule membrane thickness is only about4–6 micronsDuring the surgery, it is necessary to avoid tearing the capsular bag, damaging the corneal endothelium, or pulling the iris, while completing lens removal and precise implantation of the intraocular lens (IOL). Surgical steps include creating a corneal micro-incision, performing continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis (CCC), splitting the lens nucleus, removing the cortex, and injecting the IOL, with each step requiring high coordination between hand and eye.

Despite the average duration of the entire surgery being10–15 minutes, the stability required for the surgery is extremely high. The surgeon must maintain their posture under a microscope, control micro-operation tools within a very small space, and simultaneously make instantaneous judgments about tissue reactions. Common variables in this environment include:Physiological micro-tremors of the hand, cumulative impact of intraoperative fatigue, subtle deviations in instrument angleetc.,May all lead to complications such as posterior capsule rupture, IOL decentration, or corneal endothelial damage.

Moreover, even among experienced surgeons, there are variations in surgical approaches regarding incision placement, capsulorhexis size, phacoemulsification energy distribution, and lens insertion speed. These differences lead to postoperative refractive errors and fluctuations in visual quality, posing structural barriers to further standardization and consistency optimization of the procedure. These unavoidable human variables represent the technical target for automation exploration in cataract surgery.

# From Animal Models to Clinical Practice: The ORYOM™ Surgical Pathway

The ORYOM™ Platform ("ORYOM" means "sunlight") is the world's first artificial intelligence-based ophthalmic surgical robotic system, consisting of micro-robots, AI algorithms, computer vision, and intraoperative imaging systems. Since 2022, the system has completed multi-stage procedural validations on porcine eye models, led by 24 doctors, cumulatively performing hundreds of complete cataract surgeries. Key steps include:

• Corneal Incision and Capsulorhexis：The platform supports the establishment of fine approaches within 5 millimeters and completes continuous curvilinear capsulorhexis (CCC);

• Lens Fragmentation and Phacoemulsification：Through a 14-degrees-of-freedom robotic arm, nuclear segmentation and stable perfusion aspiration system control are achieved, simulating the traditional phaco pathway;

• Cortical Clean-up and Capsular Bag Maintenance：The system supports high-resolution structure recognition and completes residual cortex processing;

• Intraocular Lens Implantation and Capsular Bag Centering：Combined with intraoperative optical coherence tomography (iOCT), achieving IOL implantation and centering control.

At the 2024 ASCRS Annual Meeting, Dr. David Zhang presented a video recording of the robot performing the entire procedure in a pig eye, further demonstrating the platform’s ability to integrate surgical techniques. Experimental data shows,30 unitsNo posterior capsule rupture events in the eyeball, low IOL decentration rate, average surgery time277 seconds (±42 seconds)`, the complication score is lower than`1.0。

Unlike other surgical robots, the ORYOM™ platform is not adapted from a general-purpose system but is custom-designed for ocular structures. The platform's degrees of freedom and spatial path planning enable access to both anterior and posterior segments of the eye, offering technical potential for expanding into glaucoma and retinal procedures.

For glaucoma procedures such as trabeculectomy and drainage device implantation, although the spatial requirements are minimal, they are highly sensitive to cutting paths and force control. For posterior segment procedures like vitrectomy and macular membrane peeling, the platform needs to support stable retinal surface manipulation and rapid response mechanisms. The platform has already been tested for operational accessibility in the retinal area using a porcine eye model. Whether it can be extended to such surgeries through an imaging system will be verified in subsequent trials.

# Minimally Invasive Intervention Control System: How Robots Perceive and Respond

The ORYOM™ platform adopts a master-slave control structure, allowing doctors to use a joystick at a remote console 6 meters away to manipulate the micro-mechanical arm. The micro-mechanical arm has 14 degrees of freedom, supports submillimeter-level operational accuracy, and can simulate the surgeon’s hand movements while eliminating tremors.

The imaging system consists of intraoperative iOCT and stereoscopic microscopic imaging, transmitting real-time information of multi-layered tissues such as the cornea, lens, and capsular bag.

AI Algorithm Builds 3D Structural Models During Surgery Based on Imaging Data, Predicts Tissue Boundaries, and Automatically Generates Safe Paths to Assist Doctors in Real-Time Decision-Making on the Interface. The Platform Supports Semi-Automatic Path Planning, but All Critical Steps Require Doctor Confirmation Before Execution.

During the cortex removal and IOL implantation phase, the system provides dynamic image guidance, allowing the surgeon to make fine adjustments via a graphical user interface. If residual lens fragments or abnormalities in the posterior capsule shape are detected, the surgeon can immediately pause the automated pathway and intervene manually. Literature indicates that the system has not yet integrated a complete haptic feedback mechanism, but the precision achieved with image data assistance already encompasses the scope of traditional experiential judgment.

# Clinical Pathways and Regulatory Readiness

ForSight Robotics Obtains ISO 13485 Certification in 2024, Qualifying for Medical Device Quality Management System. The Company Plans to Initiate Its First-in-Human Clinical Trial in 2025 as a Feasibility Study to Evaluate the Safety and Preliminary Efficacy of the Platform in Cataract Surgery. While the Trial Design Has Not Been Disclosed, Industry Experts Predict It Will Enroll 10–30 Patients, Potentially Across Israel, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

In addition to completing basic surgical procedures, the trial aims to evaluate key indicators such as posterior capsule integrity, postoperative IOL centration rate, and intraoperative iris damage scores, to establish registration data for FDA and CE pathways. If the trial proceeds smoothly, the company is expected to receive initial regulatory approval by 2026, with commercial deployment anticipated to begin around 2027.

# The Possibility of "Programmable Surgical Procedures"

Ophthalmic procedures have extremely high "standardization" requirements, and differences in the surgeon’s operational path, incision location, and instrument angle can directly affect refractive outcomes and complication rates. ForSight Robotics Ltd. attempts to define the "optimal procedural motion sequence" through robotic path programming, converting experience into variables and modeling the path, using this as the basis to train an AI system.

During the procedure, the robot continuously collects operational and tissue response data, using a postoperative analysis model to inversely optimize path parameters. In the long-term goal, the company proposes to develop partially autonomous execution modules, reducing reliance on the surgeon's operational skills and bringing surgery to a "structural safety" level. This strategy has not yet entered the human validation stage but has preliminarily established an algorithm framework in animal experiments.

# The "Ophthalmology Gap" in Surgical Robots and Technology Pathway Selection

Over the past two decades, robotic surgery has rapidly gained popularity in fields such as urology, gastrointestinal surgery, and orthopedics, but ophthalmology has long been absent. The main reasons include an extremely small surgical field, narrow operational pathways, extremely high imaging system requirements, and the already highly efficient traditional manual surgical methods.

What sets the ORYOM™ platform apart is that, rather than attempting to "extend" the path of traditional robots, it has redesigned the perception system and operational mechanisms specifically for ophthalmic procedures. With spatial paths as short as just a few millimeters, and AI-assisted execution of highly consistent movements, it establishes robotic advantages in core steps such as corneal capsulorhexis and IOL positioning.

Currently, there are no similar systems in the industry that have entered the human trial stage, and ForSight Robotics Ltd. is expected to become the first entrant in the robotization of ophthalmic surgical procedures.