GoCheck, maker of a smartphone app that screens young children for amblyopia or “lazy eye,” has raised $6 million in a Series B investment round headed by FCA Venture Partners. Other new backers Mucker Capital and Sovereign’s Capital will join the company’s prior investors, which include Interwest Partners and Marc Benioff.

WHAT THEY DO

GoCheck (formerly Gobiquity Mobile Health, and iCheck Health Connection prior to that) offers FDA-registered software for Apple and Nokia smartphones that allows pediatricians and other healthcare professionals to screen children aged 6 years and younger for amblyopia.

After integrating with the provider’s EHR system, users select the patient’s profile in the GoCheck Kids app and take a single photo of the patient’s eyes. Afterward, the app automatically sends the image to a patient’s EHR, and generates a sharable report with the patient’s results. Providers can also view any images and results remotely thanks to the app’s cloud-based design.

Designed as a low-cost alternative to dedicated screening hardware, which can cost a practice thousands of dollars to purchase, GoCheck Kids is available through a monthly subscription on pre-loaded devices. According to the funding announcement, the app is currently employed by more than 4,500 pediatric teams within the US and Europe.

WHAT IT’S FOR

GoCheck will be focusing on additional EHR integrations and new artificial intelligence capabilities that leverage Apple’s CoreML and ARKit, according to the announcement.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Beyond the pediatric population, several companies have developed various takes on digital vision testing for home and professional use. For vision acuity tests, these include Opternative, EyeQue and Warby Parker. DeepMind has also made some noise in the UK for its eye disease diagnostic AI platform.

ON THE RECORD

“Many childhood eye diseases, including amblyopia, myopia (near-sighted), hyperopia (far-sighted), and even retinoblastoma (rare but fatal childhood cancer) are not readily apparent or easily diagnosed by health care professionals,” Dr. David Huang, cofounder and CIO of GoCheck, said in a statement. “Instrument-based vision screening has proven effective in identifying vision issues in children, however, it is cost-prohibitive for many pediatricians. We are changing this dynamic by bringing pediatric vision screening into the digital age.”