6over6 Vision: The 'Virtual Optometrist' in Your Smartphone – How Data and AI Power Online Eyewear Fitting and Vision Monitoring

The reporter has been farsighted since childhood. Due to the limited technical capabilities in the county town during those years, they had to take an hour-long bus ride to the city for eye examinations and prescription glasses every holiday. As the reporter also suffered from motion sickness, their greatest wish at the time was to be able to complete all these procedures at home, so as to avoid such “ordeal” ever again.

“Dreams come true.” In 2014, a company named 6over6Vision (hereinafter referred to as “6over6”) was established. The company is aBased on Smartphonesa provider of optometry software solutions that enable customers to undergo eye exams, purchase prescription glasses, and monitor their vision from home. 6over6 leverages data and AI to deliver online refraction services, boosting conversion rates for online prescription eyewear sales, while striving to create a closed-loop ecosystem for eyewear e-commerce and home-based vision monitoring.

The company’s app, “GlassesOn,” is built on eight patents and employs a pure-software approach to perform precise subjective refraction while also measuring the optical parameters of existing eyewear. Its accuracy meets the Chinese national standard GB 10810 for ophthalmic lenses and the American ANSI Z80.1 standard, and it has received FDA clearance.

VCBeat (WeChat: vcbeat) has learned that 6over6 is an Israeli company that completed its Series B financing in November 2017, led by a Chinese companyRimonci CapitalThe lead investor is also promoting its deployment in China. It is reported that 6over6 completed its registration at the Wenzhou Eye Valley on November 14 this year. What exactly makes this Israeli company so attractive to Chinese capital firms? The reporter called Richel, CEO of Ruimengxi Capital, to explore the reasons from an investor’s perspective.

According to Euromonitor’s report, the global eyewear market totaled $127 billion in 2017 and is projected to reach $170 billion by 2022. Meanwhile, GfK’s market research report indicates that China’s optical eyewear market, encompassing both online and offline channels, reached RMB 50.5 billion in 2017, representing an 11% year-on-year increase compared with 2016.

Beyond their optical correction function, consumer demand for eyewear is increasingly shifting toward diversification and personalization, with brand, fashion, individuality, and cost-effectiveness becoming key factors in purchasing decisions. Consequently, it has become a growing trend for consumers, particularly those from the internet generation, to purchase eyewear through e-commerce platforms.

However, consumers who purchase prescription glasses online must provide an optometry report specifying their refractive error and pupillary distance. In practice, however, refraction and related measurements typically require a visit to an optical store or hospital for examination using professional equipment. Most optical stores offer free refraction services only to customers purchasing glasses, while hospitals require queuing and a series of examinations, which is relatively time-consuming.

To address this issue, 6over6 has developed a comprehensive smartphone-based optometry and eyewear fitting app called “GlassesOn,” which includes unaided refraction, lensometry, pupillometry, and multifocal lens fitting. Using only a smartphone, it can measure myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, and astigmatic axis, while also eliminating accommodative influence.

GlassesOn leverages AI-driven big data to create user profiles and intelligently recommend eyewear based on facial features (size, shape), existing glasses specifications (dimensions, shape, style & Rx), lifestyle and work scenarios, as well as specific customer needs. This approach helps increase the conversion rate for online prescription eyewear purchases, thereby establishing a complete online purchasing loop for eyewear e-commerce.

In August this year, the Ministry of Education and seven other departments issued the “Implementation Plan for Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Myopia in Children and Adolescents,” requiring the establishment of vision records for children and the strict implementation of requirements for pediatric eye care and vision screening.

Nowadays, myopia prevention and control have become a top priority for schools, families, governments, and hospitals. However, the practical challenge lies in how these stakeholders can achieve medical-grade daily monitoring of children’s vision while significantly reducing their heavy reliance on human resources. Furthermore, given the diverse types of eye health data, establishing comprehensive refractive error records for children and adolescents requires data that is easy to collect and amenable to multi-dimensional analysis. This is no simple task; it is a critical issue that all parties involved in myopia prevention and control must address.

6over6 leverages vision monitoring data as an entry point to promote the establishment of comprehensive refractive records for adolescents, connecting key components of adolescent vision surveillance:

For families (parents and children), GlassesOn enables on-demand vision screening, allowing parents to monitor changes in their child’s visual acuity and verify whether the current eyeglasses are properly fitted. If a child’s vision changes rapidly or the glasses are ill-fitting, the app will automatically send alerts, facilitating prompt clinical consultation or prescription of new eyeglasses.

For schools and government authorities, 6over6, based on a SaaS platform, enables unified data collection and provides online analytical tools that comply with the requirements for children’s vision records, thereby establishing refractive error profiles for adolescents. 6over6 is committed to precise horizontal data acquisition by individual, school, and region, along with multi-dimensional analysis, to offer targeted recommendations for subsequent solutions.

For hospitals and research institutions, data form the foundation of scientific research. Only by leveraging large-scale data on changes in children’s vision, combined with behavioral data and other clinical diagnosis and treatment data, can we better support research related to myopia prevention and control.

Notably, 6over6 has overcome technical barriers and holds eight patented technologies in areas such as trademark branding, naked-eye optometry, lensmeters, and pupillometers. In addition to the "Glasseson" trademark patent, these include systems and methods for measuring refractive errors of the eye based on subjective distance; devices, systems, and methods for determining pupillary distance; and equipment, systems, and methods for determining one or more optical parameters of lenses.

The Rimonci International Specialized Fund, established by Ruimengxi Capital, focuses primarily on the fields of ophthalmology and optometry. According to data from the World Economic Forum’s 2016 report, “Eyeglasses for Global Development: Bridging the Visual Divide,” while 2 billion people worldwide wear corrective eyeglasses, another 2.5 billion suffer from uncorrected vision impairment.

Richel told reporters that 80%–90% of patients visiting ophthalmology outpatient clinics today present with optometry-related issues, a trend particularly pronounced among adolescents, while China faces a significant shortage of optometry service resources. Rimonci’s core investment thesis in the optometry sector centers on leveraging digital solutions—maintaining medical-grade standards—to expand optometry services to broader regions through a SaaS model. This approach aims to benefit more people, reduce reliance on human resources, and provide more efficient support and assistance to existing eye care hospitals and various optometry service providers, thereby achieving truly data-driven operations.

Dr. Ofer Limon, Founder and CEO of 6over6, is a serial entrepreneur in the field of optometry whose previous company was acquired by Bausch + Lomb. The three founders of the company all possess extensive experience in optometry and vision care. One is Dr. Limon’s former colleague, who focuses on product feature implementation, while the other is an exceptional optometrist with strong product thinking.

In terms of its revenue model, 6over6 generates sales commissions by partnering with e-commerce platforms and offline fast-fashion eyewear retailers to provide technical solutions. Meanwhile, the company is actively building a Homebase-based vision monitoring platform for children and adolescents. In the future, this platform will offer various optometric products and services, assisting stakeholders in myopia control by monitoring visual development in youth and integrating key sectors such as schools, hospitals, and optical dispensing centers. The substantial optometric data accumulated through this process will further enable the company to enhance its AI algorithms for predicting myopia progression and implementing preventive management strategies.

Regarding next steps, Richel told reporters that 6over6 is currently gradually deploying its SaaS services in China and advancing its CFDA registration. In addition, 6over6 has signed contracts with several international eyewear e-commerce platforms and AR glasses clients, while also promoting collaborations with relevant industry partners domestically, having received support from eye hospitals such as Aier Eye Hospital.