# EternaTear

> EternaTear is a Raleigh, North Carolina company building a preservative-free, over-the-counter artificial tear engineered to stay on the eye two to four times longer than leading drops - so the roughly 320 million people worldwide with dry eye stop reaching for the bottle every hour. It was founded in 2018 by Tim Willis, the serial entrepreneur behind TearScience, and raised a $4.9 million oversubscribed Series A in 2020.

- **Founded:** 2018
- **Headquarters:** Raleigh, North Carolina, United States
- **Founders:** Tim Willis (CEO, Founder & Chairman of the Board)
- **Team size:** Small core team (listed as ~2 employees) supported by an experienced executive team, board of directors, and medical/scientific advisors.
- **Products:** EternaTear (artificial tear)
- **Notable:** Raised $4.9 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round in 2020., Assembled a board and executive team of senior veterans from Alcon, Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson., Founded by Tim Willis, whose prior company TearScience was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2017.

## Products & services

- **EternaTear (artificial tear)** — An over-the-counter, preservative-free artificial tear formulated to supplement all layers of the eye's tear film and remain on the ocular surface two to four times longer than leading OTC products, reducing the need for frequent reapplication.

## Achievements

- Raised $4.9 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round in 2020.
- Assembled a board and executive team of senior veterans from Alcon, Allergan, Bausch & Lomb, and Johnson & Johnson.
- Founded by Tim Willis, whose prior company TearScience was acquired by Johnson & Johnson in 2017.
- Developed an artificial tear designed to remain on the eye 2-4x longer than leading OTC products via a 'previously unrecognized mechanism.'

## Latest updates

- **2020-10** — Announced a $4.9 million oversubscribed Series A round led by Carolina Angel Network and Keiretsu Forum, earmarked for a multi-site clinical marketing study and FDA OTC registration.
- **2020-05** — Profiled by WRAL TechWire as a Raleigh startup developing an 'artificial tear' to fight burning and sensitivity from dry eye.

## Links

- Website: https://eternatear.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/eternatear

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eternatear
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-19