Take a photo of the back of someone’s eye. Seconds later, you have a score for their cardiovascular risk. That is what Toku is building.
The why
Founder Ehsan Vaghefi grew up in Iran walking his father to school, guiding him through traffic and up steps. His father lost his sight as a child to glaucoma, a disease that could have been treated. Vaghefi built his career in eye imaging because of it, and became an associate professor at the University of Auckland.
How it works
The retina is the one place in the body where a camera can see blood vessels directly. No cutting, no bloods. Toku’s platform, CLAiR, uses AI to read tiny changes in those vessels and estimate the risk of heart disease, stroke and related conditions. The standard approach leans on a blood test and can take much longer to come back.
The rollout
CLAiR works with the retinal cameras clinics already own, so there is no new hardware to buy. The FDA granted it Breakthrough Device status in November 2023, which can speed up the path to clearance. It also has CE and UKCA marks for Europe and the UK. Toku started in Auckland in 2019 and has since moved its headquarters to San Diego.
My read
The idea is that a retinal photo could sit alongside temperature, heart rate, breathing and blood pressure, almost a fifth vital sign. Using cameras that are already in every optometrist is what makes that idea feel realistic rather than far off.