Cataract surgery is one of the most common medical procedures in the world. Millions of patients undergo lens replacement every year after the natural lens of the eye becomes cloudy. The surgery itself is highly successful, but many patients still need spectacles afterward because the replacement lens does not fully correct their vision.
Pune-based Nayam Innovations is building a technology platform aimed at changing that outcome.
The company is developing customizable intraocular lenses (IOLs) that can be adjusted to match a patient’s specific visual requirements, with the goal of reducing dependence on glasses and additional corrective procedures after cataract surgery.
Founded in 2012, Nayam Innovations operates as a medical-device startup focused on ophthalmology. The company emerged from research at the intersection of materials science, optics and biomedical engineering.
Nayam was founded by Tanuj Gigras, Dr. Julia Ann Kornfield and Dr. Surendra Ponrathnam.
Tanuj Gigras serves as co-founder and CEO. He studied Engineering Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, specializing in nanoscience and advanced materials, before working as an investment banker at Credit Suisse. He later moved into deep-tech entrepreneurship and became the inventor behind several of Nayam’s core technologies.
Dr. Julia Ann Kornfield is a professor at the California Institute of Technology known for her work in polymer science and materials engineering. Dr. Surendra Ponrathnam is a polymer scientist associated with India’s National Chemical Laboratory and has worked extensively on advanced polymer materials. Their involvement reflects the company’s strong emphasis on chemistry and material science rather than conventional medical-device manufacturing alone.
The company’s central product category is the intraocular lens. During cataract surgery, surgeons remove the eye’s cloudy natural lens and replace it with an artificial lens. Standard lenses restore clarity, but many patients continue to need glasses for reading, distance vision, or correction of astigmatism.
Nayam is developing what it calls a customizable IOL platform. According to the company, surgeons can personalize the lens to suit the patient’s visual profile. The platform is designed to correct both lower-order vision problems such as myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism, and higher-order aberrations that are harder to correct with traditional lenses.
The company says its technology can be used either before or after surgery to adjust visual outcomes. This is one of the main differentiators of the platform. Traditional intraocular lenses are manufactured with fixed optical properties. If a patient has residual vision issues after surgery, additional treatments such as LASIK or prescription spectacles may be required. Nayam’s platform is being developed to reduce the need for those secondary interventions.
At the technical level, the company combines polymer chemistry, optical engineering, precision instrumentation and proprietary algorithms. Its technology uses a photo-responsive polymer system that can alter optical properties in a controlled way.
Nayam’s product pipeline includes technologies called E-SITE and I-SITE. These are intended to provide customized visual correction, including multifocality, extended depth of focus, higher-order aberration correction and solutions for patients who previously underwent LASIK surgery. The company also says the technology is intended to work across both premium and low-cost cataract-care settings.
Cost is a major part of the company’s positioning. Hydrophobic foldable intraocular lenses are generally more expensive than older PMMA lenses commonly used in lower-cost cataract procedures. Nayam states that one of its goals is to reduce manufacturing costs of advanced foldable lenses to levels closer to traditional alternatives, potentially making premium-quality vision correction more accessible.
Funding for the company has come through a mix of grants, incubation support and private investment. Early support came from India’s Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), which awarded a Biotechnology Ignition Grant. Venture Center in Pune and Villgro Innovations Foundation also provided financial and incubation support during the company’s early years.
In 2022, Nayam announced a new funding round led by IAN Fund and Bharat Innovation Fund. The Vinod Jain Family Office, Sameer Desai of Zydus Cadila and several angel investors also participated. The company did not publicly disclose the amount raised.
The broader market Nayam is targeting is substantial. Cataract remains the leading cause of preventable blindness globally. According to the World Health Organization, hundreds of millions of people suffer from vision impairment, and cataract surgery volumes continue to increase as populations age. Premium intraocular lenses have become one of the fastest-growing segments within ophthalmology because patients increasingly expect not only restored vision but also reduced dependence on spectacles.
Globally, the intraocular lens market is dominated by large ophthalmic companies such as Alcon, Johnson & Johnson Vision, Bausch + Lomb and ZEISS. These companies manufacture monofocal, multifocal, toric and extended-depth-of-focus lenses used worldwide.
A growing category within the sector focuses on adjustable or customizable lenses. One of the most prominent examples is RxSight, which developed a light-adjustable lens that can be modified after implantation. Nayam operates in a similar broad category of personalization, though its underlying technology platform differs.
What makes Nayam notable is that it is attempting to build advanced ophthalmic technology from India while targeting global regulatory markets. The company combines polymer chemistry, optics, manufacturing and medical-device engineering in a field usually dominated by multinational corporations with decades of experience.
For cataract patients, the company’s promise is straightforward: clearer vision with less dependence on spectacles after surgery. Whether Nayam can translate that promise into large-scale clinical adoption will depend on how its technology performs in real-world ophthalmic practice, where precision, safety and long-term outcomes ultimately determine success.
- Our correspondent
