Latin America PE/VC Report spoke with Alberto Osio, President & CEO of Yolia Health and Co-Founder of Angel Ventures Mexico. Yolia Health is an ophthalmic bio-med company that helps vision correction practitioners preserve, restore and enhance vision. Yolia has received angel funding, institutional support from, Conacyt, Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology, and has been a MIT Business Plan Competition Semifinalist and a Harvard Biotech Business Plan Competition Finalist.

LAVCA: Please describe the technology you have developed.

Osio: The company is developing an ophthalmic corrective procedure that promises to revolutionize the vision-aid industry, by offering a unique, non-invasive method for correcting low refractive errors and presbyopia, an eye condition that affects people over the age of forty.
In simpler terms, our product is a semi-permanent othokeratology treatment. Orhokeratology is the use of rigid gas-permeable contact lenses, normally worn only at night, to improve vision through the reshaping of the cornea. This method can be used as an alternative to eyeglasses, refractive surgery, or for those who prefer not to wear contact lenses during the day.
Instead of using these contacts every night for the rest of the patient’s life, our treatment requires patients to wear our personalized contact lenses with our enzymatic eye drops for only seven days. After the seven days are over, our patients stop using the personalized contact lenses, enzymatic eye drops and their eye glasses or reading glasses.

LAVCA: What led you to come up with this business?

Osio: My father, the late Dr. Alberto Osio, was a pioneer in refractive surgery. He called me up when I was at MIT doing my post graduate studies to tell me the progress he was having with his research. I immediately knew that this was a disruptive technology worth pursuing, so I designed my MIT courses around this venture. We were offered mentorship from MIT’s VMS (Venture Mentoring Service) and the rest is history.

LAVCA: How does your background in both business management and health science help you to succeed in managing Yolia? Have you ever started a company before?

Osio: Yolia followed a common biotech strategy – to seek government approval outside the US. In our case, we did this in Mexico, where we are FDA approved. We also have patents granted for China, Egypt, Singapore and South Africa. Today we have clinical data, and sales – essentially the ‘proof of concept’. However, getting financing was a huge hurdle, so we got involved in launching an angel group in Mexico, Angel Ventures Mexico.
100% Mexican technology ~ however incorporated in US

LAVCA: What sort of financing have you received thus far? What have your investors contributed to the company, in addition to capital?

Osio: Yolia’s investors are a mix of friends, family and institutional investors. Our angel backers are sophisticated US, European and Mexican Angels that have also provided industry contacts for further co-development and M&A opportunities. On the institutional side, we have been backed by Conacyt, Mexico’s National Council on Science and Technology.

LAVCA: You are also serving as a director to Angel Ventures Mexico after co-founding the group. Did starting a company influence your thinking about the presence of angel groups in Mexico?

Osio: It is sad to see great entrepreneurs and scientists fail in Mexico due to the lack of financing. This is both a cultural issue and as a result of the lack of Venture Funds in the region. Innovation is hard to finance in Mexico. Most venture funds invest in later stage or private equity type deals in mature industries. AVM was created to provide a free platform for high impact entrepreneurs and investors and therefore create a well balanced ecosystem.

All of the 25+ advisors supporting AVM agreed that Mexico needs successful examples of entrepreneurship. It is hard to be an entrepreneur in the region – it’s not that you have to be born in a wealthy environment or that there is a lack of great ideas or talent, but rather that incentives are not aligned between investors, government policies and entrepreneurs.

LAVCA: Who is your competition? What do you see as your competitive advantage?

Osio: Our product competes with eye glasses and contact lenses. Our clear advantage is a safe and semi-permanent solution. Imagine having to wear contact lenses daily for the rest of your life, and then imagine yourself wearing a set of contact lenses for seven days or less once every 6 months or every year.

A semi-permanent solution has the benefit of being safer for the patient, and generates a recurring business for the companies involved (ophthalmologists, optometrists, contact lens providers, insurance, etc).

LAVCA: How has the larger medical community in Mexico responded to this new technology in ophthalmology?

Osio: Since this is a disruptive technology we have centered our attention to the thought leaders in ophthalmology and optometry. They continue to provide support for Yolia as a non-invasive/safe alternative.

LAVCA: Are you looking for additional financing? How is that going, given the current state of the economy? Have you seen any interest or solid commitments?

Osio: 2009 was terrible for everyone, but 2010 has been quite the opposite. We are seeing great interest from sophisticated investors from outside Mexico.

LAVCA: What is Yolia’s most pressing strategic challenge right now? Are you looking to expand within Mexico and/or internationally?

Osio: Our key challenge is being able to finance our research team. But we have a strategic advantage in Mexico, as R&D is about one-tenth the cost of the US. We look forward to completing our Verion Yolia-2.0 soon and launching our treatment locally and into other Latin American markets. However the speed of doing R&D and time to market could be faster if Yolia received the financing it needs.

LAVCA: Where do you see your company five years from now?

Osio: Yolia Health will be an internationally known ophthalmic biotech company, developing and in-licensing technology, drugs and other devices from both Latin American and US universities and hospitals. And we will have out-licensed our current treatment to a top tier pharmaceutical company.