AZALEA VISION SECURES EIC ACCELERATOR FUNDING TO ADVANCE SMART CONTACT LENS PLATFORM

Azalea Vision Co-founder and CTO Andrés Vásquez Quintero undergoing an on-eye evaluation of the ALMA smart contact lens.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 3 (Bernama) -- Azalea Vision, a Belgian healthtech company, announced it has been selected for the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, the European Union’s (EU) flagship programme for breakthrough, market-creating deep tech.

As the only Belgian company selected in this round, Azalea Vision will receive up to 7.5 million euros, including a non-dilutive 2.5 million euros grant and a planned five million euros equity investment from the EIC Fund, to advance its medical-grade smart contact lens platform into clinical development. (1 Euro = RM4.64)

“This is one of the toughest funding programmes in the world to win, and it validates everything we have been building, our technology, our vision, and the size of the market in front of us.

“Our technical validation is nearly complete, and the core platform works. This award gives us the resources to prove it clinically and to do it from Europe. We intend to move fast,” said Azalea Vision co-founder and chief technology officer, Andrés Vasquez Quintero in a statement.

The EIC Accelerator, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, supports the start-ups judged most likely to create or disrupt global markets, and fewer than five per cent of applicants make it through its expert and jury reviews.

The EIC Fund's equity investment alongside the grant signals confidence in a company's technology, vision and market while reducing risk for private co-investors. Azalea Vision ranked among the highest-scoring applicants in its cohort and has begun the funded programme.

The funding will support clinical development alongside the final engineering work needed to bring the platform to patients.

With core platform functionality established and technical validation nearing completion, the EIC award accelerates the transition from proven technology to a certified medical product.

Following the EIC endorsement, Azalea Vision has begun discussions with strategic and financial investors across Europe and the United States to co-invest alongside the EIC Fund in its upcoming financing round.

-- BERNAMA