A Boston startup is betting that a clear, doctor-verified eyeglass prescription should take about 90 seconds - and happen wherever you already are.
EYEBOT, BOSTON. The wordmark that now sits atop five-foot kiosks in malls and vision centers - where a free infrared scan replaces the waiting room.
Eyebot - legally 123 See, Inc. - builds contactless, self-serve kiosks that measure your eyes and produce a doctor-verified eyeglass prescription in roughly 90 seconds. There is no appointment to book, no insurance card to hand over, and no optometrist standing behind the machine. You walk up in a mall or a vision center, answer a short survey, look into a five-foot kiosk, and tap the letters you can read.
The device uses a touch-free infrared autorefractor: invisible light is bounced into the eye to measure how it bends, the same principle behind clinical instruments. It also scans the glasses you already own and checks your visual acuity on screen. The measurements are then routed to licensed optometrists and ophthalmologists, who review each result remotely and decide whether to approve, deny, or refer the prescription. The kiosk collects the data. A human doctor still signs it.
That split is the whole idea. Eyebot is designed for adults roughly 18 to 64 who mainly need an updated prescription - not a substitute for a comprehensive eye-health exam. Older patients, or anyone whose results look unusual, get referred to a doctor for a full in-person workup. The company has validated its accuracy in IRB-approved studies of more than 2,500 patients and is FDA-registered.
The kiosk automates the measurement - not the medical judgment.
A short survey covers your history: current glasses, last exam, any concerns.
A touch-free infrared autorefractor measures refraction; you tap letters for visual acuity, and existing lenses are scanned.
A licensed tele-doctor reviews the results and approves, denies, or refers - unusual cases go to an in-person exam.
The prescription is emailed to you and can route to a retail partner so glasses are ready the same visit.
More than 30 million Americans live with uncorrected blurry vision. Part of that is cost - a traditional exam often runs north of $100 and needs an appointment - but part of it is simple supply. There are not enough eye doctors in the United States to give every person an annual exam. When Eyebot ran tests in a shopping center, about 22% of the people who walked up had never had an eye exam at all.
Eyebot’s answer isn’t to train more doctors overnight; it’s to change where the bottleneck sits. A single kiosk can run more than 300 sessions a day. A traditional exam lane sees roughly 15 patients in that time. The doctors stay in the loop for the judgment call, but the measurement - the part that eats the schedule - happens on the machine.
Throughput comparison as reported by Eyebot and press coverage. Figures are company-provided and approximate.
A roughly five-foot self-serve unit with a Gen2 touch-free infrared autorefractor, on-screen acuity testing, lensometry, and history intake - a free ~90-second test.
Live since 2024Licensed optometrists and ophthalmologists remotely review every result and issue, deny, or refer the prescription - keeping a real doctor, not AI, in the prescribing seat.
Core since 2024Prescriptions email to the patient and route to partners - Zenni Optical, The Framery by 1-800 Contacts - so glasses can be fulfilled the same visit.
Scaling since 2025Eyebot is a B2B company. It places or leases kiosks with optical retailers, eyewear brands, pharmacies, and grocery and retail chains, earning revenue through prescription-verification fees, placement arrangements, and commissions on eyewear sales. For the shopper, the vision test itself is free; a standalone prescription has historically cost around $20 to $30, a fee often waived when you buy glasses from a partner.
That structure is also the differentiator. App- and web-based rivals such as Visibly, 6over6, and EyeQue push the test onto your phone. Direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker sell frames. Eyebot instead puts a physical, clinical-grade kiosk into the aisle you’re already walking down, and pairs it with doctor sign-off - meeting people in the flow of their day rather than asking them to open another app or book another appointment.
CEO Matthias Hofmann has been nearsighted since around age 12 and has spent much of his career on the physics of it. He holds a PhD in optics from Virginia Tech and did postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School on optical scanning for tumor identification. Before Eyebot, he spent about a decade as an early engineer at EyeNetra, the MIT spinout that built smartphone-based eye tests. He co-founded Eyebot in 2021 with fellow EyeNetra alum Jack Moldave, now CTO.
The clinical side is led by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Alex Martin, an optometrist, alongside a commercial and operations team based in Boston. That mix - hardware and optics engineering paired with licensed clinical oversight - is what lets Eyebot argue it can automate the measurement without automating the medicine.
PhD in optics (Virginia Tech), Harvard Medical School postdoc, ~10 years at EyeNetra. Grew up in Switzerland, nearsighted since childhood.
Former EyeNetra colleague; leads Eyebot’s engineering and technology.
Optometrist overseeing the clinical review network. “Wider access to high quality eye screenings will lead to more doctor visits.”
From federal grants to a $20M Series A in four years.
| Round | Amount | Date | Lead / notable investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grants | ~$1.6M | Pre-2024 | National Science Foundation, MassVentures |
| Seed | ~$6M | Jun 2024 | AlleyCorp & Ubiquity Ventures (co-leads), Humba, Village Global, Baukunst, Ravelin |
| Series A | $20M | Aug 2025 | General Catalyst (lead); AlleyCorp, Baukunst, Village Global, Humba, Ravelin, Ubiquity return |
Total funding reported at roughly $29.6M. Public trackers list a range (~$26M–$30M+); treat as approximate.
Optics engineer Matthias Hofmann co-founds Eyebot to automate accurate eyeglass prescriptions.
AlleyCorp and Ubiquity Ventures co-lead the seed as the company readies its first kiosks.
Eyebot deploys its debut kiosk at Burlington Mall and begins a New England rollout.
General Catalyst leads a $20M round to expand access to vision care.
Kiosks go live across select Pennsylvania Walmart Vision Centers and Sam’s Club Optical.
The Framery by 1-800 Contacts partnership debuts at CES and reaches Utah malls, as the AOA raises questions to regulators amid national expansion.
“There simply are not enough doctors in the United States to give every person an annual vision exam.”
Matthias Hofmann, CEO“Clear vision shouldn’t require months of waiting, high costs, or geographic luck.”
Matthias Hofmann, CEO“You should just get glasses like you buy shoes.”
Matthias Hofmann, CEO“Wider access to high quality eye screenings will lead to more doctor visits.”
Dr. Alex Martin, Chief Medical OfficerEyebot sits at the seam of three markets that rarely overlap: clinical vision testing, retail eyewear, and healthtech automation. Traditional optometry owns the comprehensive exam. Direct-to-consumer brands own the frames. App-based startups chase the phone. Eyebot’s wager is that the fast, routine refraction - the reason many people visit a doctor at all - can be unbundled and dropped into retail, where foot traffic already exists.
That position has drawn both major retailers and organized optometry. Walmart, Sam’s Club, and 1-800 Contacts’ Framery have signed on; the American Optometric Association, meanwhile, has flagged patient-safety and privacy questions to regulators as the kiosks spread. When incumbents write letters, a curiosity has usually become a contender.
Compiled from public sources as of July 2026. Funding totals, employee counts, and throughput figures are company-provided or press-reported and marked approximate where noted. Not affiliated with or endorsed by Eyebot.