For us, this partnership represents something bigger than a commercial agreement. It is an important step toward the future we have spent the past five years building: a world where access to vision testing is no longer dependent on being in the same room as expensive, stationary equipment.

Together with Eyewa, we now have the opportunity to bring that vision into a real omnichannel retail environment and explore how phone-based refraction can become a natural part of the eyewear customer journey.

The prescription problem

Buying eyewear online should be simple. But there is still one fundamental piece of information standing between many customers and a completed purchase: their prescription.

If you do not know your current prescription, the digital journey often stops. You need to find somewhere to have your vision tested, book an appointment, travel there and then return to complete your purchase.

This is exactly the type of friction we believe technology can remove.

At OptikosPrime, we have spent five years developing computer vision and AI technology that can turn the camera already inside a smartphone into a tool for assessing vision.

Our ambition with Argus is to enable objective refraction using a smartphone, estimating sphere, cylinder and axis without requiring traditional autorefractor hardware.

That creates an entirely different starting point for vision care.

From stationary equipment to software

Eyewa has built its business around combining digital convenience with a growing physical retail presence across the GCC.

That makes the company an ideal partner for what comes next.

Under the partnership, Eyewa and OptikosPrime will work together to develop and validate Argus within real-world optical retail environments, while building toward its future integration into Eyewa’s omnichannel customer journey.

The long-term opportunity is straightforward. A customer should be able to start their vision care journey wherever they happen to be. At home. In a store. On the move.

Instead of asking people to adapt their journey to where the equipment is located, we want the technology to come to them.

“This partnership represents exactly the future we have been building towards,” says Ståle Fredlund Husby, Co-founder and COO of OptikosPrime.

“Eyewa has created one of the most innovative omnichannel optical businesses in the region, and together we have an opportunity to fundamentally simplify how people access vision care and purchase eyewear. We believe phone-based vision assessment will become a natural part of the customer journey, and we are excited to build that future together.”

A new kind of omnichannel experience

For Eyewa, the opportunity is to remove one of the remaining boundaries between digital eyewear retail and clinical vision care.

“Our customers want speed, simplicity, and confidence when choosing eyewear, but not knowing their prescription has always been the single biggest hurdle,” says François-Xavier Jombart, Chief Optical Officer at Eyewa.

“Integrating OptikosPrime’s clinical-grade AI directly into our retail ecosystem removes that roadblock entirely. It turns a traditional barrier into an instant, effortless step, setting a brand-new standard for eye care across the Middle East.”

This is where we believe the optical industry is heading.

Physical optical stores will continue to play an important role. But more parts of the vision care journey can become digital, distributed and accessible.

The phone makes that possible because the infrastructure is already there.

Billions of people already carry increasingly sophisticated cameras and computing power in their pockets. The challenge is building the software capable of turning that hardware into reliable vision technology.

That is the problem OptikosPrime is working to solve.

Five years of R&D moving into the real world

We have spent the past five years researching, developing and validating the underlying technology behind smartphone-based vision assessment.

VisionCheck, our screening technology, can already use a smartphone camera to rapidly identify people who are likely to need vision correction.

Argus takes the next step.

This partnership brings that technology closer to large-scale commercial deployment and gives us a strong partner with whom we can design the customer experience around it.

It is an important milestone for OptikosPrime.

But it is also part of something much larger.

Anyone. Anywhere. Anytime.

Globally, enormous differences remain in access to basic vision care. In some markets, the problem is convenience. In others, there simply are not enough trained professionals or enough clinical equipment to reach everyone who needs help.

We believe the same underlying technology can address both.

In developed optical markets, smartphone-based vision assessment can remove friction and enable new digital and omnichannel experiences.

In underserved communities, the same technology has the potential to dramatically reduce the infrastructure required to deliver basic vision care.

Different markets. Different customer journeys. The same fundamental idea: Move vision assessment from heavy equipment to software.

Our partnership with Eyewa is another important step toward making that idea real.

And we are only getting started.

‍