Azalea Vision, a Belgian health technology company developing the first medical-grade smart contact lens, has been selected for the European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator, the European Union’s flagship programme for breakthrough, market-creating deep technology.
Azalea is the only Belgian company selected in the latest funding round and will receive up to €7.5 million in blended finance, comprising a non-dilutive €2.5 million grant and a planned €5 million equity investment from the EIC Fund. The funding will support the company’s medical-grade smart contact lens platform as it advances into clinical development.
Beyond the financial support, the award represents a significant external endorsement of Azalea Vision’s technology and long-term vision. Built on the company’s proprietary smart contact lens platform, the device is designed to improve the quality of life of millions of people living with irregular corneas, higher-order aberrations and presbyopia. The same technology also opens the door to a biosensing platform capable of measuring a broad range of biomarkers in tears, one of the body’s purest fluids. The EIC’s endorsement positions Azalea among Europe’s most promising emerging medical device companies.
The EIC Accelerator, part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, supports start-ups judged most likely to create or disrupt global markets, with fewer than five per cent of applicants successfully progressing through its expert and jury review process.
As the EIC Fund invests equity alongside its grant funding, selection signals confidence in a company’s technology, vision and commercial potential while helping to de-risk opportunities for private co-investors. Azalea Vision ranked among the highest-scoring applicants in its cohort and will begin the funded programme immediately.
The funding will be used to support the clinical work ahead, together with the final engineering steps required to bring the platform to patients. With the core platform functionality established and technical validation nearing completion, the EIC award is expected to accelerate the transition from proven technology to a certified medical product.
This is one of the toughest funding programs in the world to win, and it validates everything we have been building — our technology, our vision, and the size of the market in front of us.
Andrés Vasquez Quintero, co-founder and Chief Technology Officer of Azalea Vision
“Our technical validation is nearly complete and the core platform works. This award gives us the resources to prove it clinically, and to do it from Europe. We intend to move fast.”
With the EIC’s endorsement secured, Azalea Vision is opening conversations with strategic and financial investors across Europe and the United States to co-invest alongside the EIC Fund in its upcoming financing round. The company sees the award as both a launchpad for clinical execution and a clear signal to international capital that a category-defining medical-device company is being built in Europe.
About Azalea Vision
Azalea Vision is a Belgian healthtech company developing the first medical-grade smart lens platform designed to sense, adapt and connect in real time. Its lens-embedded system integrates adaptive optics, custom microelectronics, liquid-crystal technology and connectivity to address vision conditions and enable tear-based health monitoring. Founded in 2021 as a spin-off from imec and Ghent University, Azalea Vision is advancing smart lens technology toward clinical translation.
Photo: Azalea Vision Co-founder and CTO Andrés Vásquez Quintero undergoing an on-eye evaluation of the ALMA smart contact lens.
02.07.2026.
