You might think people with binocular vision disorders wouldn’t be able to properly enjoy the experience of VR. As it turns out, VR is actually treating people with these conditions, and the company behind it has plans for growth.
Vivid Vision today announced that it had raised some $2.2 million in a seed funding round led by Jeff Clavier from SoftTech VC and supported by The VR Fund, CRCM Ventures, SOS Ventures, Anorak Ventures, and Liquid 2 Ventures. With this money the company plans to expand its worth on its unique vision care platform, which is already being used at more than 90 clinics around the world.
The company was founded back in 2014 by CEO James Blaha. Blaha himself suffers from lazy eye, which gave him difficulties reading and prevented him from seeing 3D content. Despite this, he invested in an Oculus Rift development kit and started building a prototype for the platform. Through various experiences, Blaha was able to improve his own vision dramatically, and has since set about trying to do the same for others.
Vivid Vision can treat disorders like amblyopia, strabismus, and covergence insuffiency among others. In its current form, pateitns head to clinics one or two times a week to use VR equipment over the course of eight months. Some 6,000 patients have been treated so far, but Blaha and co want to reach more.
While the significant investment will be used to bring Vivid Vision to more locations, the company is also offering a home use version for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Gear VR. This allows users to play a set of games specifically designed to help combat their disorders. The home use version is expected to be made available later on in the year.
