SVision Secures Strategic Investment from Aier Eye Hospital and Launches Import-Beating OCT Product, Aiming to Become the 'Tesla of Ophthalmology'

Recently,Intalight, the Leader in High-End Ophthalmic Equipment Made in China, Receives Strategic Investment from Aier Eye Hospital, the Industry Leader, this is Intalight's new round of strategic investment following the completion of an over 100-million-yuan Series B financing earlier this year. At the same time, Intalight’s pioneering product that surpasses imported alternatives — the "True Blood Flow" swept-source OCT — has been successfully installed at Aier Eye Hospital in Boao Lecheng, Hainan, and has entered China's only “medical special zone,” the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone. Following this round of strategic investment,Intalight will engage in multiple in-depth collaborations with Aier, aiming globally to jointly create the "Tesla of Ophthalmology."。

Intalight CEO Dr. Li Bing (center), Yang Fei, Deputy Director of the International Strategic Development Center of Aier Eye Hospital Group (left), and Zhao Puning, President of Boao Lecheng Aier Eye Hospital (right), attend the launch ceremony.

Intalight was founded in 2014 by three Chinese-American Ph.D.s in Silicon Valley, boasting a world-class R&D team with over a decade of experience in Silicon Valley engineering, semiconductor optics, and the development of high-end medical devices., committed to integrating cutting-edge optical design, imaging algorithms, artificial intelligence, cloud platforms, and other frontier technologies. The first self-developed OCT product leads high-end imported products in imaging quality, breadth, depth, speed, and blood flow algorithms, setting a precedent for domestically produced high-end ophthalmic equipment surpassing imports.

Mr. Li Li, President of Aier Eye Hospital Group, pointed out that Intalight has a world-class R&D team originating from Silicon Valley. Its OCT products surpass those of top international manufacturers in all aspects, truly creating a high-end domestic brand. This represents the rise of China's advanced medical technology and its beginning to lead the world.。

It is reported that from the end of last year to the first half of this year, Aier Eye Hospital organized experts from its imaging group to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of all imported and domestically produced swept-source OCT devices across multiple hospitals. Ultimately, all experts unanimously agreed that the performance and clinical outcomes of Intalight far surpass those of other brands.

“Intalight OCT surpasses all imported and domestically produced similar products in terms of product performance, imaging quality, imaging range, imaging algorithms, and quantification accuracy.", far surpassing the current mainstream imported brand products." Professor Liu Hansheng, head of the Aier Eye Hospital Imaging Group, stated after participating in the entire evaluation process.

Intalight OCT 200° Ultra-Widefield Blood Flow Imaging, Reaching as Far as the Vortex Vein

Aier Eye Hospital is the world's largest chain of ophthalmic medical institutions, with over 720 ophthalmic medical facilities serving Asia, Europe, and North America. It has three publicly listed companies in mainland China, Europe, and Southeast Asia, possessing a strong hospital network and high-quality medical capabilities across China and even globally.

China's ophthalmology market boasts a massive scale and rapid growth. Within the ophthalmology market, ophthalmic devices have shown a faster growth rate compared to ophthalmic medical services and pharmaceuticals. According to a Frost & Sullivan report, the scale of China’s ophthalmic device market surged from 11.1 billion yuan in 2014 to 26.7 billion yuan in 2019 (RMB), with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.45%. It is projected to reach 37.6 billion yuan by 2021. In the field of high-end ophthalmic equipment in China, Intalight has consistently garnered significant attention from the capital market. Besides earlier investors like VCBeat, Langxiang Investment, and Shanxi Yuhua Investment, the industry leader Aier Eye Hospital Group also expressed strong interest in Intalight. This stems from Intalight's world-class R&D team, robust product capabilities surpassing imported alternatives, and its leading position in this specialized industry segment.

Intalight CEO Dr. Li Bing stated, the company's market share is continuously increasing, with a healthy cash flow and gross profit margin. It has achieved profitability and possesses ample existing funds. The proactive involvement of Aier Medical's strategic investors has injected new momentum into the company’s development. Leveraging the strategic investors’ leading market position in the industry and their extensive resources, the company will further expand its brand influence and enhance its competitiveness in the industry market.

Mr. Li Li, President of Aier Eye Hospital GroupEvaluationCompared with developed countries, China's medical device industry started relatively late. However, due to national encouragement for technological innovation and the guidance of industrial policies, domestic brands have been developing rapidly in recent years. In the high-end ophthalmic medical equipment sector, Intalight stands out as a leader and a true representative of domestically produced brands. This strategic investment by Aier Eye Hospital in Intalight will boost the research and development of new technologies in China's high-end ophthalmic equipment field and promote new products both domestically and internationally, serving users worldwide.

Intalight CEO Dr. Li Bing and Chen Bang, Chairman of Aier Eye Hospital, Wang Ningli, Professor and Director of the Ophthalmology Center at Beijing Tongren Hospital, and other ophthalmology colleagues in China took a group photo.

OCT (Ophthalmic Optical Coherence Tomography) has always been the most advanced, complex, and clinically valuable diagnostic tool in ophthalmology, similar to the role of PET-CT in radiology. In 2019, Intalight's first swept-source OCT product obtained registration certification. Compared with imported similar products, its core parameters improved by 5-6 times, surpassing them comprehensively in scanning speed, penetration, imaging depth, imaging range, and blood flow algorithm. After obtaining the certification,Through continuous R&D and technological iteration, the product's technical advantage over imported brands continues to expand.。

Cataract and Pathological Myopia Intalight OCT Ultra-Deep Imaging

However, performance parameters do not represent everything—user recognition is the true measure of a product's strength. Intalight’s OCT has been installed in nearly 50 locations across China, with most installations at leading national and regional ophthalmology centers. Thanks to its comprehensively superior product performance, the average winning bid price for this device far exceeds that of imported high-end OCTs. Additionally, nearly 400 ophthalmology institutions have used this device, and it has become the primary clinical and research equipment in over 80% of the Top 30 ophthalmology centers in China, widely recognized and recommended by authoritative ophthalmology experts. Currently, Intalight has collaborated with Beijing Tongren Hospital, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Eye & ENT Hospital of Fudan University, Wenzhou Medical University Eye Hospital, Henan Eye Institute, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, and the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University to publish 25 SCI papers, many of which are top-tier journal articles with impact factors ranging from 5 to 11. Dr. Peng Xianzhao, the founder of the company, also co-edited the first atlas of eye diseases based on a domestically produced OCT in collaboration with Professor Chen Youxin from Peking Union Medical College Hospital.Intalight OCT is a rare Chinese-produced high-end medical device that comprehensively outperforms imported giants in a specific field and has gained widespread market recognition.。 

Intalight has been continuously striving to empower ophthalmic device development with AI technology. It is the first to integrate a large number of advanced AI-based algorithms into commercial OCT, including AI-based 3D retina recognition algorithms, AI-based anterior segment 3D recognition algorithms, AI-based choroid and choroidal vessel 3D recognition algorithms, and AI-based subretinal fluid 3D recognition algorithms.

The powerful AI-driven attributes also enabled Intalight to be selected for the "Top 50 China Medical Artificial Intelligence Enterprises" by *Internet Weekly* for two consecutive years in 2018 and 2019. In 2019, Intalight's OCT received NMPA certification from the state, and in 2021, it was appraised by the Ministry of Science and Technology as "Internationally Advanced." CCTV and Xinhua News Agency reported on Intalight's OCT product, stating that "new technologies are leading the large health industry into the intelligent era."

Intalight surpasses imported OCT products with its debut, and its core technology originates from a world-class R&D team with over 10 years of experience in Silicon Valley engineering, semiconductor optics, and the development of high-end medical devices.

Dr. Peng Xianzhao, founder of Intalight, obtained his Ph.D. in Spectroscopy from Oregon State University in the United States in 2002. He has 19 years of R&D experience in optical systems in Silicon Valley and holds more than 20 patents domestically and internationally. Co-founder Dr. Li Bing received his Ph.D. in Image Processing from the University of Virginia in 2007. He was the head of the algorithm team at a multinational corporation in Silicon Valley, has published 23 papers in international academic journals and conferences, been cited over 1,000 times, owns three U.S. patents, and has published three sets of medical atlases along with accompanying software.

Led by a Silicon Valley entrepreneurial team, Intalight has an inherent advantage in high-tech product research and development, attracting top R&D talent from prestigious universities both domestically and internationally. Currently, Intalight's core R&D team is composed of members from internationally renowned universities, with expertise spanning precision optics, electronics, precision mechanics, medical image processing, algorithms, and more.

According to the "80/20 rule," the last 20% of product development is often the most difficult yet crucial for a product's success, and this portion cannot usually be resolved simply by increasing the number of R&D staff. Intalight's world-class R&D team has the capability to overcome this final 20% of product development, thereby creating OCT products that surpass imported ones, and replicating this successful experience in subsequent products.

Backed by world-class R&D talent, Intalight has consistently been at the forefront of technological innovation. Starting with ophthalmic diagnostic products like OCT, Intalight is currently expanding its product offerings across various fields of ophthalmology, further enriching its full range of ophthalmic products to cover conditions such as retinal diseases, cataracts, glaucoma, and refractive errors.

According to Dr. Peng Xianzhao, founder of Intalight, in the near future, Intalight is accelerating the independent research and development of cutting-edge technologies such as biometry and femtosecond lasers. Soon, more ophthalmic devices in various specialized fields may astonish the world by surpassing imported technological standards.

Optical biometers are the gold standard for axial length measurement and are currently widely used in cataract surgery and adolescent myopia prevention and control. Compared with traditional optical biometers, swept-source optical biometers have a higher detection rate and are driving a wave of equipment upgrades.Intalight's swept-source optical biometer, which boasts a much higher signal-to-noise ratio and detection rate than imported similar products, will complete certification in 2022, once again surpassing imported products.。

Femtosecond laser, as a magical "surgical knife," can achieve micron-level cutting precision. It is widely used in high-end surgeries such as myopia and cataracts in ophthalmology, with extremely high technical and productization barriers, and is currently completely monopolized by imported products.Intalight will rely on its world-class R&D team and experience in semiconductor optics with nanometer precision to develop femtosecond laser surgical equipment that surpasses imported products. The initial system and optical design of this product have been completed.。

In addition, the Intalight team is developing diagnostic-grade artificial intelligence products that far exceed the performance of fundus color photo recognition, based on core technologies such as advanced AI algorithms, high-performance computing, and precision optical imaging. These include a full range of ophthalmic product lines such as full-eye OCT products, ultra-wide-field fundus cameras, and microscope OCT, providing ophthalmologists with powerful diagnostic tools.

Given the broad overseas market prospects for ophthalmic medical devices, while dedicating itself to the research and development of a full range of ophthalmic products, Intalight is also actively expanding into overseas markets. Based in China and advancing internationally, it aims to provide advanced high-end ophthalmic equipment to users worldwide.

At the 2019 Asia-Pacific Retinal Diseases Annual Conference, Intalight's OCT product became a major focus of the meeting, with overseas experts commenting that the product has surpassed imported counterparts. Intalight now has a Silicon Valley R&D Center, a Shanghai R&D Center, and a Luoyang Manufacturing Center. Currently, Intalight’s OCT products have passed the U.S. FDA and EU CE type inspections. The company is also continuously expanding its overseas elite talent team, upgrading the Silicon Valley R&D Center into a U.S. R&D Operations Center, and establishing a new European R&D Operations Center in Germany.

 SVision Research, Inc. Silicon Valley R&D Center

With advanced hardware crafted by a world-class R&D team, AI algorithms empowered by global leaders, and a brand tone surpassing imported products, Intalight will continue to enhance these three core strengths, expand globally, and break into the core markets of Europe and the United States.Committed to Becoming the Global Leader in High-End Ophthalmic Medical Devices — "The Tesla of Ophthalmology"。