ExSight Ventures

ExSight Ventures is a New York City-based life sciences venture capital firm founded in 2014, specializing exclusively in early-stage ophthalmic diagnostic and treatment solutions. The firm was co-founded by James Murray alongside Dr. Michael Nissen, a retinal surgeon on faculty at Weill-Cornell Medical Center since 1998, and Dr. Firas Rahhal, also a retinal surgeon. The team of eight partners combines deep clinical domain expertise with investment and legal experience, including Murray's role as Chair of the Emerging Companies and VC Committee at the NYC Bar Association. ExSight raised its fourth fund in 2025, marking continuous growth since founding. The firm leads rounds and deploys checks from $250K to $4 million, investing from Seed through Series B in companies across North America. With 21 investments to date, notable portfolio companies include Horizon Surgical Systems, for which ExSight led a $30 million Series A in October 2024 in a robotics and AI surgical platform; ONL Therapeutics, which raised $65 million in a Series D alongside J&J Innovation; Re-Vana Therapeutics; Envision Diagnostics; Trefoil Therapeutics; LensGen; and Valitor Bio. Three portfolio companies have been acquired: DTx Pharma by Novartis, RetroSense Therapeutics by Allergan, and ELIOS Vision by Bausch & Lomb in December 2024. ExSight's thesis holds that ophthalmology is an ideal venture investment domain due to its massive and growing global market, insufficient current standards of care, a robust innovation pipeline, and the eye's unique anatomy as a proving ground for breakthrough technologies including gene therapy, AI diagnostics, and surgical robotics. The firm's clinical founders give it a differentiated vantage point for evaluating scientific merit, clinical feasibility, and commercial potential simultaneously.