April 22, 2008SoloHealth secures $1.8M seed round for vision-testing kiosks
April 22, 2008 ATLANTA--SoloHealth, a hi-tech health services company developing vision-testing kiosks,has secured $1.8 million in financing from private investors, including the Atlanta Technology Angels (ATA) investment group. Bart Foster, CEO and founder of SoloHealth tells TechJournal South that management, friends and family also invested in the company, a spinout of CibaVision. “We’re hitting the ground running after being incubated quite a bit,” he says. Founded in 2007, SoloHealth’s inaugural product, EyeSite, is a self-service vision testing kiosk for use in high traffic retail environments. Through sophisticated optical software and an interactive video interface, users can accurately assess their distance and near vision--free of charge. A printout indicates the results, provides eye health information, and refers the user to a participating eye care professional nearby. “The proceeds from this investment will provide us with the working capital to continue to validate our model in a number of additional market locations over the balance of the year,” Foster says. The company has been testing the kiosts with a mass merchandiser for the last two months, he adds. The eight-employee company plans to add three or four additional people this year, says Foster. “We focus on three things,” says Foster, “Awareness, education and referrals.” The idea of the vision-testing kiosks, which the company wants to place in stores and malls, “Is to drive more people to get eye exams,” says Foster. “Half of eye disease is preventable. It happens so slowly people don’t realize they’re losing their sight.” After an exam at one of the kiosts, the company follows up with educational outreach to encourage people to get a full eye exam if necessary, he says. He says the company is capitalizing on “major growth trends.” Consumers are driven by health and wellness, digital signage is growing 56 percent a year (largely due to falling prices on large, flat-screen monitors), and people show growing acceptance. They use photo kiosks, airline kiosks and others, “So they are getting used to it,” says Foster. Healthcare retail kiosks are still in their infancy, he notes. SoloHealth announced last week that EyeSite won three Awards of Excellence, including “Best in Show” at the KioskCom Self Service Expo and The Digital Signage Show in Las Vegas. Earlier this year, SoloHealth was selected as one of the 2008 “Top 40” Innovative Technology companies in Georgia by the Technology Association of Georgia (TAG), the state’s leading technology organization. In addition, SoloHealth was accepted for membership by Georgia Tech’s Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC). On the Web: www.solo-health.com Posted by staff at April 22, 2008 07:09 AM |
ATLANTA--SoloHealth, a hi-tech health services company developing vision-testing kiosks,has secured $1.8 million in financing from private investors, including the Atlanta Technology Angels (ATA) investment group. This unit won Best of Show at the recent KioskCom in Las Vegas. [photo]