PeriVision: Meet the Venture Leader Medtech combining AI, VR & the cloud to build the next generation systems to understand visual function.

21.08.2023 09:40, Rita Longobardi

Meet Patrick Kessel, CEO of PeriVision. Deploying AI algorithms to make eye tests faster and more reliable, the startup aims to change eye care.

Name: Patrick Kessel / PeriVision
Location: Epalinges
Nationality: Swiss
Graduated from: University of St. Gallen, London School of Economics & Political Science
Job title: CEO & Co-founder
Number of employees: 4.3
Money raised: ~CHF 3M (dilutive & non-dilutive)
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Termsheet negotiation workshop by Wenger Vieli (we still work with them).
 

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Can you tell us who your product or solution helps, and how?
Amidst a world built on visual experiences, 2.2 billion people grapple with vision issues, with half preventable. Our solution blends AI, VR, and cloud tech to revolutionize eye care. Patients undergo VR tests, while doctors customize and analyze on a cloud platform. AI guides tests boosts reliability, and offers deep insights. Clinics thrive, decisions improve, and early eye ailment detection expands. This fusion protects eyesight, forging a brighter visual future.

What market are you addressing and what is the potential of your startup in that market?
Our focus is global, targeting eye doctors worldwide in both private practices and public institutions. With an initial emphasis on the US and Switzerland, we're eyeing 20,000 ophthalmologists and 40,000 optometrists. But we want to go beyond that and make eye testing and monitoring more widely available. We aim to democratize eye testing, revolutionizing care models. Think optician stores and elderly homes offer enhanced testing through our systems. This innovation addresses accessibility gaps, estimating a USD 2 billion global market for our transformative products. We're not just entering markets; we're expanding global eye care possibilities.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
To be honest, our idea came from my co-founder Raphael's collaboration with the eye clinic in Bern. With Serife, my other co-founder, they explored the eye's structure-function relationship. Yet, unreliable test data and patient-unfriendly processes posed issues. Consulting experts revealed a problem: tests intimidated patients, causing data and workflow problems. They integrated AI into VR headsets, transforming the tests. Their research improved glaucoma diagnosis through better perimetry tests. I joined 2.5 years ago after finding them in Venturelab. Seeing their lack of business insight, I offered support, sharing our vision for better eye care through tech. We won EIT Health Wild Card in 2021, securing EUR 1.5 million in pre-seed funding. This marked our commitment to turning our idea into a company.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders Medtech roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
Since the very beginning, we had a strong intuition that we should focus on the US market due to different trends which suited our vision: this consumerisation or decentralization of healthcare, easier regulation vs. the EU, and fast technology adoption. We then tested these hypotheses with the Swissnex program and two trips to US ophthalmology conferences in 2022 and they were validated. Thus, the Venture Leaders program will be the perfect catalyser for building our US business. We want to grow our customer pipeline, assess whether Boston is the right spot for our US entity and hire first US staff and find US investors to fund our journey.

What are your team’s key achievements to date?
I would say we invested a lot of time in validating the pain points and demands of our customers by shadowing doctors and assistants in eye clinics in Switzerland, the US and the UK, conducting interviews and focus groups with all relevant stakeholders and demoing very early prototypes - we are certain that the market exists. Then we assembled a really strong, experienced team with diverse backgrounds. We like people who think outside the box and bring new unconventional perspectives and pair that with people who know “the box” really well and have long and deep experience in ophthalmology. Lastly, this convinced great investors to put their money behind us – we are very excited to work with early-stage VC DART Ventures, who brings European deep-tech startups to the US, or angel investors like Walter Inäbnit, a veteran of the eye care industry.
 

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What is the most challenging and rewarding aspect of being a founder?
The key lesson I've gained as a founder is autonomy – it's both the most challenging & rewarding aspect for me. Being an entrepreneur lets you shape your life's trajectory, dedicating it to a purpose you choose. You decide whom to assist, which problems to solve, and with whom to collaborate. It's like reaching the apex of Maslow's hierarchy, scripting your life's narrative alongside like-minded individuals – a rare privilege. Yet, this privilege entails immense responsibility. A friend I met in Singapore once said, "To whom much is given, much is expected." Autonomy places you consistently in the "driver's seat," forging a deeply personal connection. You're the heart of decisions and tough choices, often challenging. It can lead to sleepless nights, affecting all facets of life.

What is the most important lesson you have learned as a founder?
While it is true that you are in the driver's seat and have the ultimate responsibility, this does not mean you cannot rely on other people for help. You are not alone in this and building a strong team and network of advisors and fellow entrepreneurs is incredibly important. A key learning for us was that when you face these crucial decisions with a high path dependency, i.e. no or a very difficult “way back”, don’t try to figure everything out on your own. Learn from other startups and these experienced advisors, people who have done it before or have seen many other companies in similar situations, and then combine these opinions and inputs with your intuition and make a decision – and stick to it.

What is your favourite productivity hack/tool and why?
Maintaining close relationships with friends and family, regular exercise, reading before bed and 7h of sleep.

What was your dream job when you were a child?
Archaeologist – I was obsessed with Jurassic Park and finding dinosaur bones in our garden (much to the disliking of my mother).

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ABOUT THE PROGRAM
The Venture Leaders Medtech 2023 were chosen from over 80 applications by an expert jury. The roadshow in Boston provides a unique opportunity for entrepreneurs to accelerate their startups' expansion in the US while expanding their professional network and profiting from workshops with investors and industry leaders. This year's Venture Leaders Medtech program is organized by Venturelab in collaboration with Swissnex Boston and is supported by EPFL Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Hansjörg Wyss, Kellerhals Carrard, Swissnex Boston, and the Canton of Vaud.