We make the invisible, visible

In 2012 Ophthalmologist Dr Andrew Bastawrous embarked on his PhD project in Nakuru, Kenya. He saw first-hand the challenges eye services in the region faced. Too few healthcare workers and limited infrastructure hindered access, leaving many people with vision loss that could have been avoided.

This realisation sparked the ‘eye-phone’ project – the world’s first clinically-validated vision test app that could be used by anyone, anywhere. In 2014 a validation study was completed in Kenya showing that the app, Peek Acuity, is as accurate as conventional distance vision tests.

In 2015 Peek was established as an independent social enterprise, with support from London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and our visionary Founder Board members.

The team now turned its attention to a major challenge: capturing the data and insights that would allow eye services to use their limited resources efficiently and ensuring that the hardest to reach people can access eye care.

Trials of Peek in school and community eye health programmes were completed in Kenya, Botswana, and India, proving that Peek’s vision testing app plus data insights can deliver more effective eye health programmes.

In 2018 Peek began working with our anchor partner, CBM Christian Blind Mission, taking our evidence base into live programmes for the first time. By the end of 2019 Peek-powered programmes in four countries had reached 66,000 people.

RAAB7, a Peek-powered fully mobile version of the industry-standard Rapid Assessment of Avoidable Blindness launched in 2021.

The Vision Impact Project concluded in Kenya in 2025 – a multi-county project led by CBM and Kenya’s Ministry of Health, powered by Peek. In four years it has screened over 5 million people across 7 counties.

We began major new strategic partnerships during this period, including with Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health, Sightsavers and Fred Hollows Foundation. At the end of 2024, we celebrated a major milestone: Peek’s partners had used our software and data intelligence platform to screen over 11 million people and connect more than one million to eye care.

Peek is currently being used to screen over 150,000 people a week in 13 countries.