Waterloo Smart Contact Lens Start-Up Receives $1.4 M in Seed Capital

Thursday, June 9 2016 | 00 h 00 min | Vision Science

Medella Health, a start-up company developing a proprietary smart glucose monitoring contact lens, founded at University of Waterloo’s technology incubator, has raised $1.4 M seed capital from venture capital firms.

In June last year, InfoClip reported Harry Ghandi, the company co-founder, was awarded a $100,000 prestigious Thiel grant to develop the product. The team has since grown to include nanotechnology, micro-electronics, health IT and micro-fabrication experts in its quest to commercialize the product, disrupt the market and take advantage of the shift to preventative health care.

Ghandi told InfoClip the company anticipates a final prototype by the end of 2017.

Lyndon Jones, Director of the Centre for Contact Lens Research is impressed. “Not only do they (Medella) have the rigor and the resilience to solve the hard problems facing this industry, but they weave together the balance between visionary purpose and practical implementation.”

The market opportunity for bio-sensors and health monitoring has not gone unnoticed. Alcon’s parent company, Novartis, announced the licensing-in of smart lens technology for ocular use last year from Google.