More Images
MyEyeDr.'s Sue Downes (l) with Goldman Sach's Jo Natauri.
NEW YORK—Beginning its next chapter, armed with the investment and health care perspectives from its new financial partner at Goldman Sachs, MyEyeDr. (MED) is viewing the future as one which will amplify its efforts to put the patient experience front and center. Its leadership team is poised to employ technology in a range of ways, from those that streamline and make patient service more actionable, to an approach that further develops professional paths for its optometrists and raises vision care’s profile and awareness among patients and other provider groups in the health care field.

These top line priorities, for the near and longer term, are featured in an exclusive Vision Monday interview with Sue Downes, MyEyeDr.’s CEO, along with Jo Natauri, global head of heath care investing for Goldman Sachs’ Merchant Banking Division, that outlines the opportunity for both companies. In a deal that was announced in June and closed last August, Goldman Sach’s MBD acquired Capital Vision Services LP, which provides management services to MyEyeDr.’s optometry practices, from its previous investors, Altas and Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec (CDPQ). Details of the transaction were not disclosed, however The Wall Street Journal cited sources that valued the deal at $2.7 billion, including debt.

As of the end of 2019, MyEyeDr. finished an active year, operating 571 offices, and generating estimated revenues of $775 million, with practices in 26 states, according to Downes. (The company entered seven new states in 2019 and added 136 new practices in that time.) The company will continue to partner with practices in the recently expanded geographies of Texas, Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Oklahoma, Michigan and Wisconsin, Downes said, noting that MED plans its first office in New York City in 2020.

Learn more about Downes' and Natauri's perspectives and plans from the full Newsmaker feature here and also see how MyEyeDr. is widening professional paths and training for optometrists in an interview with MED's Artis Beatty, OD, chief medical officer, here.