Glasgow optical healthcare disruptor looks to raise £5m and tap into vast US market

Glasgow-based optical healthcare disruptor IbisVision is embarking on a £5 million fund-raising drive in the US as it eyes a slice of the world’s largest eye-care market.

The firm, which is revolutionising optometry through its remote eye test technology, said its funding push was being overseen by Florida-based investment company Compiler VC.

The initiative will see the Scottish firm’s chief executive, Mark Roger, and chief commercial officer, Melville Berwick, over a two-week period meet with investors with access to more than $25 billion (£19bn) of funding. The meetings will take place in Florida and New York and the team will also be connecting with top eye care providers and charities.

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The fund raise is led and sponsored by Compiler, which is led by Adam Wolman and Yannick Henriette.

Glasgow-based IbisVision is revolutionising optometry through its remote eye test technology.Glasgow-based IbisVision is revolutionising optometry through its remote eye test technology.
Glasgow-based IbisVision is revolutionising optometry through its remote eye test technology.

The Florida-based business was an original investor in IbisVision and among its portfolio specialises in healthcare and in particular eyecare. The firm previously developed and then sold For Eyes, a retail optician business with 150 locations across the US.

Roger said: “While Glasgow born and bred, we have global ambitions, and you cannot be a global business without a significant footprint in the US. Our proposition is very much aligned with the trends that the US investment industry is focused on, as evidenced by the continuing support from Adam and Yannick at Compiler.

“With increased funding from US investors, we hope to tap our international potential with a key focus being the lucrative and expanding US eye-care market itself.”

The capital raise is part of an ambitious plan to build out IbisVision’s capabilities outside of the UK, where it currently is working with the NHS and optometrists in developing its remote eye test technology. The company already sells its technology in India, where it is used in kiosks situated on the country’s transport network.

IbisVision is now focusing on adapting its products for the $37bn-plus US market, where there is an annual tally of 88 million eye tests in a rapidly ageing population.

With a widely dispersed population and a largely fragmented market of around 35,000 optometrists, there is increasing demand for the technology that IbisVision specialises in, bosses said.

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