Beyeonics Raises $11.5M to Develop AR and VR for Eye Surgeons

A subsidiary of Israeli defense company Elbit Systems, announced today that it has raised $11.5 million to continue work on artificial reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) tools for surgeons.

Elbit does plenty of VR and AR work for military training and operations, and in 2012 it began bringing its experience in simulation to healthcare applications. The resulting spin-off company, Beyeonics, is focused on a product called the Clarity Bionic Visualization Platform, which features a transparent, camera-equipped headset display that “replace[s] surgical microscopes” by projecting visualizations to guide surgeons during ophthalmologic surgeries. That device is accompanied by a processing core that uses analytics tools to enable instantaneous data integration from numerous digital sensors.

>>>READ: Big Names Put Big Money Behind VR Surgery Start-Up

The system has been undergoing clinical trials for about 2 years now. According to the company, it has been successfully tested in more than 20 surgeries both in Israel at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and in the United States at Renal Consultants of Arizona.

The investors backing Beyeonics were not named, although some outlets report that “5 unnamed organizations…including an American corporation in the medical device business” contributed to the round.

“We are proud to have spun-off a company that leverages some of our unique technologies to materially enhance surgeons' capabilities in the operating room,” Elbit Systems CEO Bezhalel Machlis said in a statement. “This investment will enable Beyeonics to expand product development, to include additional surgical applications and to accelerate commercialization."

Last summer, Elbit trademarked a wordmark for the company, which reads “Beyeonics” above the phrase “The Future of Surgery.”

And that moniker probably isn’t inaccurate, although Beyeonics is far from alone in the AR/VR surgery and simulation field. Earlier this year, a team in Texas became the first to perform an AR-assisted sinus surgery using technology from a company called Scopis. Meanwhile, numerous firms—ranging from startups like Osso VR to established tech giants like Samsung—are working to create physician and surgeon tools that manipulate their eyes to improve patient outcomes.

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