Danish AI startup lands million-dollar deal with Middle East optician chain

Copenhagen startup OptikosPrime has signed a commercial deal with Eyewa, an optician chain with more than 260 eyewear stores across six countries in the Gulf region. According to OptikosPrime, the agreement could be worth several million dollars, which is a double-digit million amount in Danish kroner.

After five years of development, OptikosPrime's software, called Argus, will be used in Eyewa's stores and on its webshop. Argus calculates a customer's glasses prescription from a photo taken with a mobile phone, which is meant to make buying glasses easier.

The company says the problem is significant: more than 60 percent of online glasses purchases are never completed because customers do not know their prescription. Ståle Fredlund Husby, co-founder and COO of OptikosPrime, says the company believes vision assessment via phone will become a natural part of the customer journey.

Eyewa is more than a customer. The two companies are already sharing data so the technology can become more accurate and be validated, which means Eyewa is helping develop the solution it will itself use.

OptikosPrime was founded by Anders Kofod-Petersen, who is CEO, and Ståle Fredlund Husby. Besides opticians, the company is targeting humanitarian organisations, because over a billion people worldwide have no access to an eye test.