Half of global blindness is caused by untreated cataracts.
The GHIF, along with the Visionary Venture Fund invested in the surgical eyecare venture to lower the cost and increase the effectiveness of cataract surgery.
The GHIF is a joint fund between the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and JPMorgan Chase.
Iantech has developed a cataract surgery device called miLOOP to make surgery “more efficient, less invasive, less dependent on capital-intense [devices], and easier to learn.”
The device has already been commercialized in the U.S.; the investment is focusing on the miLOOP’s global potential.
“Because extremely advanced cataracts are so prevalent among poor populations, we have a promising new technology that will be welcomed by surgeons both in the most advanced Western centers as well as in the developing world,” says David Chang, an Iantech advisory board member.
