ForSight Robotics co-founders Professor Moshe Shoham (right) and Daniel Glozman. Photo Kfir Ziv
Israeli startup ForSight Robotics is developing a surgical robotic platform to deliver what it describes as high precision and cost-effective vision-saving surgery. The company, which was founded by a number of experts with a wealth of experience in the high tech field, just raised $10 million in a seed round led by Eclipse Ventures and joined by Mithril Capital.
The one year old company declares that its mission is to transform the practice of ophthalmic surgery through a next generation robotic platform combining “state of the art robotic microsurgical technology, advanced visualization technologies, and next generation cognitive computing methods.”
Israeli medical professionals have been behind many new procedures to save people’s vision over the years. Losing your vision is one of the most frightening things which can happen to people. Israeli startup OrCam produces new technology for the blind and other people with visual deficiencies. Its MyEye is wearable technology which can give eyesight to the blind. But it does not heal them. The company expects a $3 billion valuation when it goes public later this year
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Forsight Robotics, however, tries to heal blindness. The company explains that many of the leading causes of blindness worldwide can be prevented through timely surgical procedures. Ophthalmic microsurgery is complex and challenging, requiring many years to master, and there is a shortage of trained ophthalmic surgeons to meet the demand worldwide. Creation of a robotic surgical platform will allow one to deliver consistent excellent results while scaling up ophthalmic surgery to solve the problem of preventable blindness worldwide.
ForSight was co-founded by cofounder and CEO Daniel Glozman, Moshe Shoham and its Chief Business Officer Joseph Nathan. Dr. Glozman has specialized in robotics for medical applications for over 20 years, heading R&D at Medtronic Ventor Technologies, Magenta Medical, Diagnostic Robotics, and Guide-X – which he also founded.
Moshe Shoham is an emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the Technion and former head of its robotics laboratory. He will serve as the company’s chief scientist. He founded Mazor Robotics, the spinal robotics platform since acquired by Medtronic plc. Joseph Nathan previously directed healthcare commercialization at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, where he forged partnerships worth over $1 billion with global pharmaceutical and med-tech companies.
“Our goal is to democratize this highly sophisticated procedure, enabling patients around the world to easily access the treatment that can restore their vision,” Dr. Glozman told Globes.
Daniel Glozman spoke with TechCrunch about ForSight Robotics’ tech. “It’s a proprietary technology that we developed. It includes robotics, visualization and machine learning,” he explained. “Together, this will allow physicians to democratize surgeries. All physicians around the world will be able to perfect this procedure and perform ophthalmic procedures in a more uniform way.”
