ForSight Robotics Raises $10 Million in Seed funding

Israel: ForSight Robotics today announced the company is developing a surgical robotic platform that will transform the future of ophthalmic surgery with a $10 million seed round led by Eclipse Ventures and joined by Mithril Capital.

ForSight’s mission is to re-imagine ophthalmic surgery by applying the most advanced technologies in microsurgical robotics, computer visualization, and machine learning. The platform will automate the complex subtleties of ophthalmic surgery with an intuitive, patient-centric system that tackles the profound and growing problems of preventable blindness and visual impairment.

ForSight’s team combines the expertise of world-renowned ophthalmic surgeons with those of today’s top medical roboticists – an accomplished group of technologists whose work animates the majority of surgical robots deployed at scale. With the right technology and team in place, ForSight Robotics believes that the talents of today’s top eye surgeons can be scaled and shared with the world.

ForSight Robotics Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Glozman, Ph.D., 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.

ForSight Co-Founder Moshe Shoham, Ph.D., is an acclaimed emeritus professor of mechanical engineering at the Technion and former head of its robotics laboratory. Besides his many academic honors, Prof. Shoham founded Mazor Robotics, the leading spinal robotics platform since acquired by Medtronic plc. He is an international member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering.

Joseph Nathan, M.D., ForSight Robotics Co-Founder, and Chief Business Officer, 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. Dr. Nathan also served as director of New Ventures for the Alfred Mann Institute at the Technion, a $100 million joint venture incubating medical startups.

ForSight is supported by a distinguished group of accomplished peers in the field. Members of ForSight’s strategic advisory board are Dr. Fred Moll, co-founder of Intuitive Surgical Inc. and Auris Health Inc., Rony Abovitz, co-founder of Mako Surgical Inc. and Magic Leap Inc., and Ajay Royan, co-founder of Mithril.

In addition, ForSight will be guided by a clinical advisory board comprising six world-renowned ophthalmic surgeons. They are Drs. David Chang, Elizabeth Yeu, Vance Thompson, Boris Malyugin, Sam Garg, and Modi Naftali.

“Our partnership with ForSight is a continuation of our effort to invest in the most advanced robotics companies and support world-class talent with the necessary experience to build real-world solutions for highly valuable applications and industries,” said Seth Winterroth, Partner at Eclipse Ventures. “This company meets all those criteria and one more: Its success will help millions of people around the world see and live better.”

“As populations grow and age, robotically assisted surgery is an essential tool to simultaneously advance technique and broaden access to top-tier medical expertise,” said Ajay Royan, co-founder of Mithril Capital. “ForSight’s mission will benefit hundreds of millions around the world.”

ForSight was awarded a grant from the Israel Innovation Authority’s Companies Incentive Program and has built a top-notch executive team to lead mechanical engineering, computer vision, product design, and software development. The company is expanding its technical team and is actively seeking highly-skilled, impact-driven engineers across the mechanical, software, and hardware fields.