TEL AVIV, Israel—Flō, a privately-held Israeli start-up, has signed agreements with three North American laboratories that will acquire, install, and assist in evaluating the first Flō Platforms to be released in 2024. Cherry Optical Lab, Encore Optical, and Superior Optical Lab will be the first labs in North America to have access to Flō’s cutting edge technology where additive manufacturing (AM) technology is being applied to generate optical coatings on lenses. In September, VMAIL  reported that Flō had signed an exclusive license agreement with Yeda Research and Development Co., Ltd. regarding the use of Weizmann Advanced Materials used for optical coatings.

Jonathan Jaglom, CEO and chairman for Flō, said, “We are extremely excited to have our first customers in North America. It is essential for us to ensure a strong product-market fit. Having these leading laboratories is crucial to our success. The fact that these labs placed significant sums to acquire our technology is further testament to the validity of our products in this market."

Flō’s digital coating technology is achieved through multi-material and multi-layering techniques that expand customization and automation options, reduce production complexity, increase scalability and deliver consistent quality. Last month, VMAIL also reported Flō-Optics and PPG had entered into a supplier agreement on developement of digital manufacturing technology for the ophthalmic industry, for the application of PPG HI-GARD scratch-resistant coatings using Flō’s proprietary digital printing technology.

Flō debuted their technology for the first time at Vision Expo West in September. "Orders were placed within three weeks, indicating a strong value proposition that we are offering," said Ben Levitan, head of product at Flō. He added that from inception, Flō has taken significant steps to ensure strong product-market fit. Labs, consultants and experts in the ophthalmic field are in constant contact with the product team at Flō. He noted having these first laboratories in North America assisting Flō in its market evaluation is critical to Flō’s success.

“A key core value we hold dearly is our obsessiveness to be customer-centric. Disruptive technology such as ours must have significant value to help transition the market from analog to digital. Therefore, having these customers share with us learnings in lab environments about our systems is vital,” he said.

Flō has recruited field engineers that will provide ongoing customer support where needed, to ensure close support of the initial systems install, the company said.