Custom Surgical allows ophthalmologists to digitalize their microscope images via smartphone with its solution. This facilitates telemedicine treatments, physician training, or discussing examination results in complex cases with colleagues.
Federico Acosta, CEO of Custom Surgical, explains:
“At Custom Surgical, we are modernizing ophthalmology through AR and AI apps that help eye surgeons improve surgical outcomes and diagnose eye diseases. Our optical system enables ophthalmologists to digitalize any microscope with any smartphone in a cost-effective and universal way. With our products, we want to democratize access to high-tech tools in microscopy. Every surgeon should be able to have the best tools to care for their patients!”
With this concept, Custom Surgical has now secured the Outstanding Graduate Award from the Luminate accelerator, which comes with €500,000. Beyond this, the Munich-based company impressed the audience at the final event and also won the Audience Choice Award. This award is worth an additional €10,000. Luminate NY is regarded as the world’s largest startup accelerator for applications in optics, photonics, and imaging. The accelerator, managed by Nextcorps, is funded by the US state of New York.
Sujatha Ramanujan, Managing Director of Luminate, says:
“The technology of Custom Surgical has a strong value proposition in the market and was a crowd favorite because it can help counter the rising rate of blindness. It offers a simple way to record, store, and analyze medical procedures as well as robust training tools that help eye surgeons improve their skills, patient outcomes, and early detection and diagnosis of eye diseases.”
Custom Surgical on the path to break even
Federico Acosta praises the support Custom Surgical has received from Luminate:
“The Luminate Accelerator Program was a critical step for the future of our company. This program opened multiple doors for our company throughout New York State. We were able to close deals with industry partners and customers in the region and, most importantly, were introduced to major venture capital firms for further investment. The support from the Luminate team and mentors was crucial to the success we have achieved over the past six months.”
According to its own statements, the startup is growing more than twofold annually, and entirely organically. The Munich company has completely outsourced the manufacturing, quality control, and logistics of its hardware, which not only makes the hardware business scalable but also allows the startup to focus on software development, computer vision, and machine learning. The company’s sales are growing quarter after quarter, and the company expects to reach break even soon.
