An online eye exams startup, Opternative Inc, has secured a $6 million in a Series A round, adding up to the total of $9.5 million financing to date. The financing round is led by Jump Capital, involving Tribeca Venture Partners, and Pritzker Group Venture Capital.

The Chicago-based startup offers a $40 online eye tests. Patients can use their smartphones and a personal computer to do the tests. The fee will cover a 25-minute online refractive tests. Patients can also receive prescriptions for glasses or contacts directly from the online tests within 24 hours. To get both glasses and contacts prescription, the price is $60.

The fund gathered in this round will be allocated for future expansion of the startup's online refractive eye exam service in the U.S. As for now, Opternative already has 40,000 signups from patients. The service is available in 33 states for patients aged 18 to 40 years old. The Wall Street Journal noted that the startup have been avoiding markets where patients' ability to obtain care remotely is not explicitly permitted by regulators, or where bills and measures are pending that could limit the use of its technology by health professionals or patients. However, the company aims to expand its business to 46 states within the next year.

In order to achieve that while also improving the service, the startup is investing in R&D and partner integration in order to increase accessibility. According to Chicago Tribune, the company is also expanding its technology in order to help test patients older than 40. With older adults, vision issues tend to become more complex. Thus, a more advanced technology is needed to test such patients. The company is also working to form partnerships with online retailers, so that patients could be redirected to the retailers' site to buy glasses or contacts as prescribed.

"Patients love getting their prescription for glasses and contacts online through Opternative," Opternative CEO Aaron Dallek stated. He also noted that the company's satisfaction rating os over 99 percent. "People are enthusiastic about the affordability and convenience of our online exams," he added, as quoted by PE HUB. The startup claimed that its service is clinically proven to be as accurate as a traditional refractive exam performed by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. 

Upon receiving the latest fund of $6 million in the Series A round led by Jump Capital, Opternative will start expanding its service to other states in the U.S. The startup will also acquire new technologies that would allow them to have older patients.