Miami-based Heru, a Bascom Palmer Eye Institute spinoff, has secured US$30 million series A financing to advance its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered eye diagnostic and vision-correction technology platform.
Heru’s Vision Diagnostic, its first product on the market, uses cloud- and AI-powered wearable devices to diagnose and correct vision defects in real time, including visual field loss and double vision.
James Rogers of D1 Capital Partners, which led the funding, said, “Heru’s technology is designed to reduce the burden on the practitioner, increase billing opportunities and expand the point of care beyond the traditional eyecare practice.”
The funding boost will advance further diagnostic applications that use the advanced sensors on mixed reality wearable devices, said Heru. These tests will monitor the patient’s interactions with visual stimuli and use that information to map the visual field and evaluate vision defects.
The company is also developing software to correct the user’s vision defects in real time using AI. In an early feasibility study, 78% of enrolled patients showed enhanced awareness of peripheral objects using a prototype of Heru’s vision augmentation application, Heru reported. Its solutions are compatible with off-the-shelf virtual reality headsets, including Microsoft and Magic Leap devices and the company said it will continue its collaboration with developers of augmented reality headsets to ensure compatibility.
