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South Korean startup Edenlux is preparing for its U.S. market debut with a new wellness device designed to combat eye and ear health issues stemming from excessive screen time. The company's mission is driven by the founder's personal experience with vision problems.
AI 生成摘要
韓國新創公司Edenlux即將進軍美國市場，推出一款旨在解決過度螢幕使用所導致的眼部及耳部健康問題的健康設備。該公司的創辦人親身經歷的視力問題，也成為其創立此產品的動機。
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People around the world now spend hours a day on their smartphones. On average, daily smartphone use exceeds three hours, and for many adults, total screen time climbs to six hours or more, according to research. This constant close-up screen exposure has been linked to a growing list of eye-health issues, including dry and irritated eyes, eye fatigue, blurred vision, headaches, and the worsening of nearsightedness, per reports.
Edenlux, a South Korea–headquartered startup, has developed technology to address eye and ear health issues caused by screen-heavy digital lifestyles.
The company’s mission is personal. Edenlux founder and CEO Sungyong Park knows first-hand what it feels like to lose control of your eyesight. While serving as a military physician, Park received a muscle relaxant injection for severe neck stiffness. It triggered a rare side effect: temporary paralysis of the eye muscles responsible for focusing. Doctors told him there was little to do but wait.
Park didn’t wait. He imported specialized ophthalmic equipment and began retraining his eye muscles himself. Over time, his vision gradually returned. That experience reshaped his understanding of eye health, leading Park, a medical doctor turned entrepreneur, to develop technology to help people protect and restore their vision in a screen-heavy world.
Now, Edenlux is preparing to launch its second wellness device, Eyeary, a daily visual recovery tool aimed at the U.S. market, with a planned Indiegogo launch around the end of March. Unlike medical devices, Edenlux’s products fall under the FDA’s wellness category, allowing them to be described for vision training and general eye health. (The company opted to launch on Indiegogo rather than seek investor funding, Park said, citing sufficient cash reserves to support operations for several years.)
The company’s first product, Otus, launched in 2022 in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, and Taiwan. The bulky, VR-style device uses lenses to contract and relax the ciliary muscle. Otus has generated $10 million in cumulative revenue, and Edenlux says Eyeary is designed to be faster and easier to use.
“With Otus, users typically took about 12 months to reduce their dependence on reading glasses. Eyeary could shorten that to around six months,” Park claimed.
Eyeary is also a design leap, he added. It looks like normal glasses, is lighter and more comfortable and the lens system includes 144 diopter focal points, allowing for finer focus adjustments and more precise eye-muscle training. (Otus has five diopter focal points) The device pairs with a mobile app via Bluetooth, collecting usage data and feeding it to Edenlux’s servers. The company analyzes datasets across age, gender, and vision profiles, using AI to predict improvement timelines and customize training programs.
Prolonged screen time can overwork the ciliary muscle, which controls the lens inside the eye. “When people are young, the muscle is strong enough to focus,” Park said. “But constant smartphone use keeps it contracted, and over time, it can weaken, leading to fatigue and vision problems.”
Edenlux has developed a suite of products targeting specific eye conditions, including Otus and Eyeary for visual recovery, Tearmore for dry eye, Lux-S for strabismus, Lumia for myopia prevention, and Heary for auditory recovery. Tearmore, Lux-S, Lumia, and Heary are expected to roll out in Asia, Park said.
Park sees companies like Oura Ring as peers. Both collect human data and provide insights via software, on a subscription model. But while Oura focuses on heart rate and sleep, Edenlux targets vision and hearing health.
Its target customers include all individuals who regularly use smartphones and earphones. “We aim to address the root causes of eye and hearing problems from digital device overuse,” Park said.
Edenlux raised $39 million in its Series A round in 2020 and $60 million in Series B funding in 2022. The company recently established a U.S. subsidiary in Dallas, Texas, where its devices will undergo final assembly.
While Edenlux currently develops and manufactures in-house, it’s exploring partnerships with major tech firms like Apple or Samsung, aiming to integrate its vision-protecting technology with smartphones.
Combining firsthand insight, advanced science, and hardware devices, Edenlux believes that eye health in the digital age is more than a wellness trend – it’s an emerging area in consumer technology.
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Reporter, Asia
Kate Park is a reporter at TechCrunch, with a focus on technology, startups and venture capital in Asia. She previously was a financial journalist at Mergermarket covering M&A, private equity and venture capital.
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