BELLEVUE, Wash. and SAN DIEGO, June 8, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Innovega Inc. has been chosen for the 2020 class of "Cool Companies" selected by Connect, a San Diego-based nonprofit organization dedicated to helping technology and life sciences entrepreneurs build great companies. This coveted designation, presented annually since 2015, is bestowed upon San Diego's growth companies and selected by an active community of venture capitalists, angel investors, entrepreneurs, executives, market influencers and community leaders.
"The Innovega team is honored to be recognized as one of the region's Cool Companies," said Steve Willey, Innovega Co-founder, President and CEO. "This validation is particularly timely since Innovega is about to commence pivotal FDA clinical trials for clearance of its novel iOptik® smart contact lens."
"In 2020 we received a record number of applications from extraordinary companies for the Cool Companies program," said Mike Krenn, CEO of Connect. Cool Companies is an annual program purposed to direct investment capital to San Diego's best technology and life sciences start-ups that are ready to accept Series A funding. Cool Company events since 2016 have attracted more than 200 venture capital firms and raised more than $400M in Series A institutional funding.
Innovega, an alumnus of San Diego Connect's Springboard mentoring program, has 13 issued US patents and an additional 12 filed applications for its smart contact lens-enabled augmented reality system. The first use case for Innovega's eMacula® system of stylish eyewear and smart contact lenses is an application for the visually impaired and legally blind.
About Connect
Connect is a community nonprofit organization helping tech and life sciences entrepreneurs throughout their growth journey with a suite of curated programs aimed to help companies grow, gain access to capital and scale.
About Innovega
Innovega Inc., headquartered in Bellevue with development facilities in San Diego, is developing stylish, lightweight, wearable displays that feature a high-resolution, panoramic-field-of-view system for medical, consumer and industrial application. The Company is licensing its technology into the $74 billion global vision care market with a focus on image enhancement for the visually impaired. Its transformative patented platform, eMacula®, includes eyewear and iOptik® high-resolution smart contact lenses that work together to deliver broad application in medicine, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). The Company has been supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), National Eye Institute (NEI) of National Institutes of Health (NIH), and National Science Foundation (NSF) and has received investments from strategic partners.
Media Inquiries:
Steve Willey, President/CEO
[email protected]
Cell: (425) 516-8175
SOURCE Innovega Inc.
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