Vision care has been trapped in slow motion. Appointments drag, insurance paperwork multiplies, and half the country lives nowhere near an eye doctor. Eyebot decided that waiting weeks for a prescription in 2025 was as ridiculous as renting DVDs. Their answer is a kiosk that delivers a doctor-verified prescription in 90 secs. Free test, real prescription, no barriers. Drop it in a grocery store, a mall, a campus, even an airport, and suddenly eye care feels like ordering a latte instead of filing a claim.
Legally called 123 SEE Inc. but better known as Eyebot, the company was founded in Boston in March 2021 by Matthias Hofmann, Co-Founder and CEO, and Jack Moldave, Co-Founder and CTO. Hofmann, a Virginia Tech Ph.D. with 15 years in optical engineering, cut his teeth at EyeNetra, Formlabs, Harvard Medical School, and Lumicell. Moldave brought mechanical engineering from Carnegie Mellon and hardware experience from Formlabs. Together they solved the problem that killed earlier attempts: make it idiot-proof, push-button simple, and clinically sound.
That clarity just landed a $20 million Series A led by General Catalyst, with Caitlin Donovan steering the deal. Returning investors AlleyCorp, Baukunst, Village Global, Humba Venture, Ravelin, and Ubiquity Ventures doubled down. Add the $6 million seed from last year and NSF support, and the tally is now over $30M raised. The traction is impossible to ignore: 45,000 vision tests already completed, clinical studies with 2,500 patients validating accuracy against traditional exams, and a pipeline aiming for half a million tests annually.
Eyebot leases kiosks to optical retailers, eyewear brands, and independent practices, with licensed ophthalmologists reviewing every prescription. Zenni Optical signed on in 2024, and more national retailers are coming. It is a simple but lethal model: frictionless for consumers, profitable for partners, and scalable nationwide.
The team doubled post-seed and now counts 14 people, including Chief Medical Officer Alexander Martin, OD, FAAO, and Chief Commercial Officer Tim Fern, a veteran of Meta’s Oculus, Jawbone, and Verizon Wireless. Hiring will ramp again in 2025 across engineering, product, and clinical operations to fuel deployment.
The market backdrop is massive. The global ophthalmic equipment space sits near $60 billion. A quarter of U.S. counties have no practicing eye care provider. Nearly two-thirds of Americans lack vision insurance. That is not a gap. That is an opening the size of a runway. Eyebot is not a gadget, it is infrastructure.
