Virtual eye testing for the 21st century thanks to PeriVision
The elderly population, which is also most susceptible to eye disease, is growing year after year, but current eye testing technologies are stationary, expensive and unreliable. To enable earlier detection and more efficient monitoring of eye diseases, Biopôle-based PeriVision is combining commercial virtual reality and powerful recognition algorithms. The initial focus of PeriVision’s software is on glaucoma, a chronic eye disease leading to blindness and affecting 80 million patients globally.
The startup’s patented artificial intelligence algorithm and software application offer a virtual reality-form of perimetry, the eye exam used to detect visual defects and the progression of the disease. In the future, they will implement additional eye tests onto its platform and add AI tools to help eye doctors improve patient management. With the FIT Tech Seed loan, PeriVision will now continue investing into its platform development, run several clinical studies in hospitals in Switzerland, the US and UK and prepare the market entry for its first VR-perimetry product.
Swistor – modern energy storage technology for a clean future
The start-up is building a novel energy storage technology called “supercapacitor” that will drastically change our way of storing energy. Smaller and more reliable, this technology concentrates more power than current batteries.
Swistor proposes to replace or complement conventional batteries in portable devices with high energy density supercapacitors. Not only is it built without any critical raw materials, they also can last significantly longer charging cycles (>30’000) and support an extended temperature range (between -40 to +80° C).
The FIT loan of 100'000 Swiss Francs will be used to establish Swistor’s industrialization strategy and test industrial processes, as well as establish its supply chain and validate the market entry strategy.