GoCheck Grabs Southeast HealthTech Investors’ Attention With $10M Round

It may sound counterintuitive at first, but GoCheck is building technology to help fight a pressing problem created by technology.

A growing body of research suggests that myopia (nearsightedness) is on the rise with the increased amount of screen time and overall indoor time kids and adolescents are averaging each day. That could be a sign of more serious vision issues down the road.

The Nashville-based GoCheck Kids built out a clinically valid at-home visual acuity test to make sure eye care wasn’t neglected during pandemic lockdowns. 

Now armed with an additional $10 million in institutional investment, the team is ready to expand its product portfolio and get in front of the eyes of even more children. 

 

 

GoCheck Kids is built on Apple’s Core ML and Amazon AWS, allowing the team to build out a reliable model of tens of thousands of images of the eye. Real-time classification of the image helps ensure the accuracy of the photoscreening, which is crucial for pediatricians and families trying to get accurate information from a GoCheck test the first time. 

This also decreases the cost of care on the physician’s side while improving the standard of care for the young patient, the GoCheck team added.

6,500 pediatric teams have used GoCheck Kids to check for vision impairment and blindness in children. Hospitals, private practices, schools, and screening organizations have screened 5 million patients to date. 

 

Southeast Growth

GoCheck’s products and growth strategy have caught the attention of investors across Nashville and the Research Triangle — two cities that are known for their strong HealthTech communities.

North Carolina-based Hatteras Venture Partners and the Pisgah Fund co-led a $10 million round of funding this month, alongside CU Healthcare Innovation Fund (affiliated with the University of Colorado) and WakeMed Hospitals Innovation Venture Fund. Existing investors Raleigh-based Sovereign’s Capital, FCA Venture Partners out of Tennessee, Marc Benioff (Founder/CEO of Salesforce), Interwest Partners, and Mucker Capital also participated. 

“GoCheck Kids’ artificial intelligence breakthroughs have finally enabled pediatric providers to avoid both upfront capital investment for vision screening and the tragedy of permanent vision loss in children,” said John Crumpler, General Partner at Hatteras Venture Partners, in a statement. “We believe GoCheck’s team has the potential to revolutionize vision care in America and the rest of the world by accelerating access and equity, and also lower health care costs.”

The team, now 40 people strong, has embraced a remote-first work model but remains tied to its headquarters in Nashville.

The GoCheck team told Hypepotamus that they plan to double headcount, with current roles opened in sales, engineering, and product management.