D-EYE Secures $1.68M Funding to Advance Smartphone-Based Retinal Imaging System Ahead of IPO

D-EYE, established in 2014, maintains offices in both Italy and California. The company primarily focuses on the research and development of mobile sensors, diagnostic devices, and their accompanying applications to facilitate health screenings and data acquisition. Furthermore, D-EYE has developed a cloud-based service platform that serves two key purposes: meeting the needs of telemedicine, and integrating and analyzing health screening data to assess patients’ conditions and deliver high-quality care. D-EYE provides individuals with a “digital eye” for monitoring their physical health status.



The company recently completed a $1.68 million financing round, with investors including Innogest, Invitalia Ventures, the Giuseppe e Annamaria Cottino Foundation, and Si14. The funds will be primarily used for the research and development of D-Eye, a smartphone-based retinal imaging system.

“D-Eye was conceived by Andrea Russo, an ophthalmologist from Padua, Italy. ‘He was examining a patient when his phone rang, which sparked the idea to develop a smartphone-based retinal imaging system,’ said Rick Sill, CEO of D-Eye.”

“He looked at his smartphone and said, ‘Since smartphones can now capture images, could they be used as a digital ophthalmoscope? If so, I could use my phone to transmit captured ocular images to other physicians.’” In an interview program, Sill discussed how “he went out and bought a 3D printer to begin realizing his idea—printing a lens and mounting it on a smartphone to serve as a retinal imaging device.”

Russo partnered with Si14 to jointly develop the product. In May 2015, D-Eye was launched.

The company now has offices in both Italy and California, and has launched an external device that can connect to iPhones or Samsung smartphones for eye examinations. The external device syncs with a companion app and uses the smartphone’s LED flash to capture high-definition images and videos of the retina. The device costs $435.

D-Eye can assist physicians in diagnosing various ophthalmic conditions, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, visual impairment, optic neuritis, and hypertensive retinopathy. Furthermore, the product is also suitable for use in animals, including dogs, cats, rabbits, horses, and falcons.

Sill stated that the company would leverage the new funding to promote the adoption of D-Eye. Although D-Eye has already garnered attention from medical professionals such as ophthalmologists, optometrists, pediatricians, and neurologists, its ultimate goal is to achieve widespread use among general practitioners, nurses, emergency medical technicians, and particularly those working in hospital emergency departments.

“Our company’s mission is to leverage smartphones to help 300 million people worldwide who have lost their vision—those living in remote rural areas without access to healthcare,” said Sill.

The company is currently conducting beta testing of the D-Eye Image Repository, a cloud storage service powered by TreVia Digital Health. Captured images and videos will be uploaded to the D-Eye Image Repository for further analysis, if necessary.

By | Chen Kun
Editor: Zhang Nan