NovaSight Secures Tens of Millions in Series A Funding to Digitize Eye Care with Proprietary Eye-Tracking and AI Technologies

VCBeat (WeChat ID: vcbeat) has learned thatOn July 14, NovaSight secured a Series A funding round worth tens of millions of US dollars, led by Rimonci Capital and participated by strategic industry investors.

Amid the broader backdrop of the pandemic outbreak, “remote” and “cloud” technologies have been thrust into the spotlight. For the healthcare sector, this has served as a catalyst. Telemedicine, as a critical component in the future development of healthcare, has begun to draw significant attention from governments, industry stakeholders, the public, and investors.

As early as 2016, NovaSight, an Israeli eye health innovation company, began developing a digital platform for remote and cloud-based eye diagnosis and treatment by leveraging eye-tracking technology and algorithmic innovations.

By integrating eye-tracking technology with AI, and focusing on pediatric ophthalmology, we developed CureSight, a visual training platform for pediatric strabismus and amblyopia, and established EyeSwift, an automated, objective, quantitative, portable, and easily deployable system for rapid screening and diagnosis of pediatric visual function.

Currently, NovaSight also leverages big data to optimize treatment parameters for personalized, precision therapy, thereby establishing a foundation for future product expansion into adult ophthalmology and the diagnosis of neurological disorders.NovaSight’s innovations in the field of optometry and vision care have not only opened up new directions for therapeutic interventions but also ushered vision healthcare into a digital era characterized by remote accessibility, precision, and objective quantification.

This is precisely why NovaSight was still able to secure substantial funding, even as global private equity faced certain impacts in the wake of the pandemic.

In Eye Care and Treatment,NovaSight has established a robust product pipeline targeting amblyopia, pediatric visual function assessment, age-related eye diseases, and neurological disorder diagnosis, leveraging AI, big data, eye-tracking technology, and other algorithmic innovations. Additionally, NovaSight holds three licensed patents for intelligent visual assistance, gaze-based ocular alignment diagnostic analysis, and digital therapeutics for amblyopia, with four additional related patents currently pending application.

By integrating cutting-edge technologies such as data fusion algorithms, coupled with a robust patent portfolio and regulatory approvals from the FDA and CE, NovaSight has established a solid competitive moat.

The gold standard for traditional amblyopia treatment is occlusion therapy, which involves patching the stronger eye to encourage the use of the amblyopic eye, thereby exercising it to restore vision. However, due to the cosmetic drawbacks of patching, compliance with this therapy is poor when children are not under constant parental supervision, and it may lead to psychological issues in children.

NovaSight has developed CureSight, a vision therapy platform for pediatric amblyopia, to address the challenges associated with traditional amblyopia treatments.This device is lightweight and user-friendly. Children can undergo training for visual functions such as stereopsis and fusional convergence at home by watching animated cartoons through smart glasses, making remote therapy possible.

The system’s open-source nature enables integration with platforms such as Tencent Video, YouTube, and iQIYI, significantly enriching content diversity. This allows pediatric patients to freely choose their preferred videos for viewing, thoroughly addressing the issue of poor compliance among children in traditional visual training, thereby enhancing binocular fusion and binocular perceptual training outcomes.

CureSight Product Schematic Diagram

Meanwhile, AI and big data analytics will empower the CureSight system to enable real-time monitoring of pediatric treatment efficacy and personalized adjustment of treatment plans. Its vision protection features also ensure that children’s myopia progression is not exacerbated by video viewing.

The system can also directly generate progress reports and send them to the guardian and doctor applications, making the treatment process and outcomes more visible and tangible, with traceable data. The continuously optimized precision treatment plan has significantly enhanced CureSight’s ability to address pediatric amblyopia.

So, how is this process achieved?

NovaSight founder Ran Yam told VCBeat,CureSight is capable of real-time image segregation processing for the visual input from both eyes. On one hand, CureSight blurs the central vision of the dominant eye based on an analysis of instantaneous gaze position, thereby stimulating the brain to utilize the amblyopic eye. On the other hand, the system dynamically fuses the disparate images received by the brain from each eye to create 3D perception, delivering a scientifically grounded and engaging amblyopia therapy.

In 2019, clinical studies conducted by NovaSight at Sheba Medical Center, one of the world's top medical centers, showed that,Children with amblyopia who received CureSight treatment showed significant improvements in visual acuity and stereopsis, with a compliance rate as high as 95%.

Data Related to the 2019 Clinical Trial Study

“Facing the onset of the epidemic, it is crucial to find solutions for remote treatment.”Ran Yam, Founder of NovaSight, stated.

This year, NovaSight also launched a large-scale, multicenter clinical trial in the United States and Israel to demonstrate the superiority of CureSight over traditional patching therapy. NovaSight’s next step is to expand this technology into the general vision care sector. Currently, CureSight has received FDA clearance and CE marking.

On the other hand,To improve the efficiency and accuracy of children's visual function screening, NovaSight has developed EyeSwift, a vision assessment system that combines the latest eye-tracking technology with smart glasses technology.

Currently, there is a severe shortage of specialized pediatric ophthalmologists worldwide.China has approximately 260 million children and adolescents, yet the number of specialized pediatric ophthalmologists is estimated to be fewer than 5,000.(on average, each doctor serves 52,000 children),Fails to meet the needs of children's vision care.

This is precisely where EyeSwift’s advantage lies: it assists physicians in conducting high-precision visual assessments through automation, thereby lowering the skill threshold required of ophthalmologists. In other words, with the aid of EyeSwift, even general practitioners and optometrists in clinics and optical stores can perform visual assessments on children after minimal training, effectively expanding the coverage of visual function examinations.

Specifically, the system offers 11 different visual function tests, including visual acuity, reading analysis, strabismus, stereopsis, amblyopia, color vision, and contrast sensitivity. Notably, measurements for dyslexia and binocular fusion capabilities fill a previous gap in screening and diagnosis within this field, enabling parents and teachers to promptly identify issues where ocular problems lead to reduced learning efficiency or even autistic-like behaviors in children.

EyeSwift Product Diagram

Addressing challenges such as poor compliance and low cooperation in pediatric optometric examinations, EyeSwift has optimized the vision testing process for children through advanced technologies. By simply watching a video lasting a few minutes, children can be diagnosed for 11 types of visual function disorders, with quantitative analysis results provided.Due to the intelligence of this testing device,Even children under the age of 2 can undergo visual function testing using this system, effectively expanding the coverage of visual function assessment applications.

Meanwhile, the system also uploads the collected data to the cloud for sharing with the hospital’s electronic medical record (EMR) system, thereby establishing individual pediatric vision profiles and laying the foundation for future big data analytics.

In a clinical trial involving 146 children conducted at the Fudan University Eye, Ear, Nose, and Throat Hospital in Shanghai, the company demonstrated the efficacy of its system. The results from EyeSwift showed a high correlation with traditional manual tests performed by ophthalmologists. Furthermore, the repeatability of testing with EyeSwift was 56% higher than that of traditional manual methods.

EyeSwift Clinical Trial Data

Research findings on EyeSwift have been published in the American Journal of Ophthalmology (AJO), and the product itself has obtained CE and FDA certification. Currently, the system is distributed outside China by NovaSight’s strategic partners.

Beyond pediatric optometry, NovaSight has begun extending its innovations to the screening and monitoring of age-related eye diseases. Its TrackSight app, currently under development and leveraging the same hardware platform, enables rapid screening for common conditions in the elderly, such as macular degeneration, diabetic retinopathy, and glaucoma. It also continuously monitors disease progression, serving functions such as pre-operative consultation reminders and post-operative follow-up feedback.

In the future, NovaSight also plans to develop smart glasses for controlling the progression of myopia in children. In the field of neurological disorders, the company will achieve early diagnosis and continuous monitoring of conditions such as dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease by correlating eye movement trajectories with different diseases.

NovaSight’s ability to continuously achieve innovative breakthroughs in ocular therapy, realizing zero-to-one advancements, is inseparable from the robust support provided by its team.

After graduating from high school, Ran Yam, the founder of NovaSight, joined the Israeli Armored Corps and served as a commander. His three years of military service marked the first step in his growth as a team leader. After being discharged, he enrolled at the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, often referred to as the "MIT of Israel," to study optical engineering.After graduation, Ran Yam joined El-Op, an electro-optical engineering company within the Israeli defense system, and subsequently developed the core electro-optical fire control system for the Merkava, the main battle tank of the Israel Defense Forces.

NovaSight Founder Ran Yam

Ran Yam’s 25 years of experience in the optometry and optics industry have provided him with cutting-edge research and development expertise in this field.

Meanwhile, NovaSight also boasts a team of seasoned professionals with extensive expertise in academic research, software engineering and algorithms, electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, and physics.

The company’s Chief Scientist is Dr. Oren Yehezkel, an ophthalmology expert who earned a Ph.D. in neuroscience after obtaining his bachelor’s degree in ophthalmology. To date, Dr. Yehezkel has published more than 20 academic papers and holds five patents.

One of the founding team members is Professor Michael Belkin, Co-founder and Former President of the Israeli Society for Eye and Vision Research. Professor Belkin holds over 25 patents and has published more than 250 academic papers.

NovaSight’s Scientific Advisory Board comprises world-leading experts, including Professor Dennis Levi from the University of California, Berkeley School of Optometry, which underpins NovaSight’s prominent reputation in the academic community.

NovaSight’s professional scientific research team and robust product pipeline enhance its likelihood of success.Ran Yam told VCBeat that, for EyeSwift, NovaSight will currently adopt a B2B model for one-time sales. In the future, as its progressive lens design functionality is implemented, the company will continue to generate recurring revenue.

For CureSight, NovaSight adopts a B2B2C model with monthly subscription fees. In the future, smart glasses designed to control myopia progression will also be sold directly to consumers through this platform to generate revenue.

As product penetration increases, the company will gradually establish an online internet platform for pediatric optometry and ophthalmology diagnosis and treatment. By leveraging hardware and cloud platforms, it will connect homes with hospitals, linking patients with ophthalmologists to facilitate communication and management between doctors and patients. This will make remote consultations, diagnoses, treatments, and follow-ups truly feasible, thereby creating a closed-loop system for internet-based medical care in pediatric optometry and ophthalmology.

As the lead investor in Series A, Ruimengxi Capital focuses on investments in the field of visual science, managing an incubator, a U.S. dollar venture capital fund, and an RMB industrial fund.

Although the Ruimengxi team had already recognized NovaSight, which boasts an excellent team, as early as 2016, they did not choose to invest at that time due to the company’s unclear strategy and product development roadmap. Instead, the Ruimengxi team closely monitored NovaSight’s subsequent progress, maintaining regular communication and interaction with the company until they seized the optimal investment timing and made the investment decision.

Meanwhile, to support the company’s growth, Ruimengxi also brought in several heavyweight strategic investors with strong industry backgrounds to participate in this financing round. Moving forward, Ruimengxi Capital will work together with NovaSight to promote the domestic implementation and development of their technologies and products, enabling more Chinese patients to benefit from digital health innovations at an earlier stage.

As described in *Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future* by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel: “Doing what we already know how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But every time we create something new, we go from 0 to 1. The act of creation is singular, as is the moment of innovation, and as a result, something novel is born.”

Undoubtedly, in the field of optometric diagnosis and treatment, NovaSight has provided its answer.