Smart Vision Labs closed a $6.1M Series A round led by Techstars Ventures, with participation from Heritage Group, Connectivity Capital, and Red Sea Ventures. As part of the deal, Ari Newman, a partner at Techstars Ventures, will join the company’s Board of Directors.

Smart Vision Labs has developed the world’s first commercially available smartphone-based autorefractor, the SVOne, to enable accurate and fast mobile vision exams anywhere and anytime. The new funds will be used to further scale production of that device, develop additional products and services, and expand the team.

The SVOne device uses wavefront aberrometry, which is an advanced technology used to characterize vision imperfection before performing corrective vision surgery, to measure a patient’s refractive errors. The company is working with healthcare professionals to enable affordable, convenient, and high-quality access to vision care both domestically and abroad. To date, the SVOne has been used to provide vision exams in clinics and mobile screenings in 21 different countries.

Smart Vision Labs’ smartphone-based autorefractor called SVOne enables accurate and fast mobile vision exams anywhere and anytime.“I have seen firsthand how dramatically people’s lives have improved because of our portable refraction technology,” says co-founder and CEO Yaopeng Zhou.”We are on a mission to solve the global vision challenge.”

Over one billion people worldwide suffer from uncorrected refractive errors. Especially in developing countries, insufficient vision care perpetuates a vicious cycle of poverty by reducing productivity in middle-age workers and hampering educational opportunities for children. Even in the U.S, people who wear corrective lenses don’t visit their vision care provider once a year as recommended by the American Optometric Association – most get eye exams only once every two years.

Before this Series A, Smart Vision Labs received seed financing from National Vision, Inc.