Drake Star acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor to RetInSight on its Sale to Topcon Healthcare

  • Year
    May/2025
  • Sector
    Digital Media
  • Our Mission
    Drake Star acts as Exclusive Financial Advisor to RetInSight on its Sale to Topcon Healthcare

La Jolla, CA, Vienna, Berlin | May 02, 2025 – RetInSight GmbH, a privately held company based in Vienna, renowned for its innovation in retinal imaging AI solutions, today announced its sale to Topcon Healthcare, Inc., a leading provider of medical devices and digital healthcare solutions. The acquisition advances Topcon Healthcare's vision of “Healthcare from the Eye™”, enhancing access to intelligent diagnostics that deliver high-quality eye care, reduce healthcare costs, and improve clinical outcomes.

Drake Star acted as the exclusive financial advisor to RetInSight and its shareholders on this transaction. The team was led by Julian Riedlbauer and Jannis Grimm. 

RetInSight’s AI algorithms analyze optical coherence tomography (OCT) images captured in routine clinical care to detect and monitor major retinal diseases – geographic atrophy, neovascular age-related macular degeneration, diabetic macular edema, and retinal vein occlusion – which are the leading causes of vision loss globally. These tools enable earlier intervention and personalized treatment planning, especially for aging populations. 

RetInSight’s platform, born from pioneering research at the Medical University of Vienna, Department of Ophthalmology and Optometry, under the direction of Prof. Dr. Ursula Schmidt-Erfurth, is already commercialized throughout Europe and is vendor-inclusive supporting interoperability across multiple OCT systems. Already used in pharmaceutical trials, RetInSight’s algorithms also support AI-powered drug development and regulatory pathways, including advancing FDA clearances for U.S. indications.

“With Topcon Healthcare’s infrastructure, we can scale reliable and affordable AI software globally,” said Prof. Hans Peter Schwarz, Chairman of the Board of RetInSight. “This partnership supports clinical care, drug discovery, and therapeutic innovation worldwide.”

“Together, we’re enabling seamless patient monitoring across the eye care continuum,” said Dr. Amir Sadeghipour, Managing Director of RetInSight. “This collaboration brings intelligent care to patients anywhere.

“RetInSight’s OCT-based AI expertise will help our global network of partners rapidly deploy innovations,” said Ali Tafreshi, CEO & President of Topcon Healthcare, Inc. “Integrated with our Harmony® vendor-inclusive digital information system, we’re delivering clinical decision support and a scalable ecosystem for AI deployment.”

Julian Riedlbauer, Partner and deal team lead at Drake Star, said: “We’re proud to have supported RetInSight during this transaction. We believe this partnership will create meaningful opportunities and deliver lasting value for all parties involved. The acquisition marks a pivotal step toward global AI adoption in eye care, fostering a connected, developer-friendly ecosystem that drives better outcomes worldwide.”

Drake Star Team: Julian Riedlbauer, Jannis Grimm

 

Inquiries

For further inquiries, please contact:

 

Julian Riedlbauer

julian.riedlbauer@drakestar.com

M +49 172 661 575 9

 

About RetInSight

RetInSight GmbH, based in Vienna, was founded in 2020 with the ambition that longevity should not come at the expense of vision loss. RetInSight aims to enable people to maintain their full vision in order to preserve their quality of life and lifelong autonomy. The company is therefore developing transformative AI-based software solutions that leverage routine optical coherence tomography (OCT) images to monitor and detect progressive retinal diseases such as geographic atrophy (GA), neovascular age-related macular degeneration (nAMD), diabetic macular edema (DME), and retinal vein occlusion (RVO) – the most important age-related diseases that lead to visual impairments in today’s world. Their mission is to revolutionize ophthalmology through reliable, affordable, and easy-to-use AI-based medical software that enables timely diagnosis, accurate monitoring, and personalized treatment of retinal diseases for anyone, any time and at any location by supporting networked care in ophthalmology with the help of AI technology and digital data.

For more information, visit www.retinsight.com.

 

About Topcon Healthcare

Topcon Healthcare, Inc. is part of Topcon Corporation, a leading provider of digital healthcare solutions. The company’s vision is to improve access and quality of healthcare while decreasing the cost of care. To achieve this vision, Topcon Healthcare created "Healthcare from the Eye™”, a connected care ecosystem using AI-powered disease detection and management applied to noninvasive retinal imaging.

For more information, visit www.topconhealthcare.com.

About Drake Star 

Drake Star is an award-winning global tech investment bank that has completed over 500 transactions since 2003. The Drake Star global team of experienced professionals and senior advisors across offices in New York, Munich, London, Paris, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berlin, and Dubai* focuses on mergers & acquisitions and corporate finance services worldwide in Software/SaaS, HR Tech, Digital Services, FinTech, Digital Media, Industrial Tech, Consumer & Retail Tech and Mobility & Sustainability.

This testimonial was given by a client.  The testimonial is no guarantee of future performance or success.  This is not a paid testimonial and no material conflicts of interest exist between the person(s) providing the testimonial and Drake Star. Drake Star is the marketing name for the global investment bank Drake Star Partners Limited and its subsidiaries and affiliates. In the USA, all securities are transacted through Drake Star Securities LLC. In the USA, Drake Star Securities LLC is regulated by FINRA and is a member of SIPC. Drake Star UK Limited (FRN 942020) is an appointed representative of Razlin Ltd (FRN 730805), which is authorized and regulated by the FCA. © 2025 Drake Star Partners Limited.

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