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C T I N N O V A T O R S , 2 0 2 5 7 UConn professor, serial entrepreneur Coles leads startup developing smart contact lens for aging eyes Bold Vision >> By Joel Berg Ryan Coles leads a Hartford-based company vying to create a smart contact lens, a venture that requires specialists in engineering, materials science and ophthalmology. Coles brings something else to the mix — experience starting companies and more than a decade of academic research into what it takes to turn an innovative product into a growing business. But his ambitions for the smart-lens company, called Pantera, are even bigger. "For the last 25 years, people looked at Cupertino and Apple to say, 'What's the next great thing?'" Coles said, referring to Apple's California headquarters. "We think that with Pantera and our smart contact lens, people are going to start looking out to Hartford and saying, 'What's the next great thing coming out of Hartford and Pantera?'" e company has to clear several hurdles first, including clinical trials and approval from the Food and Drug Administration, said Coles, Pantera's CEO and an assistant professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Connecticut. He is also chief strategy officer of a fintech startup called Nomyx. But he's confident Pantera will be ready to launch its first commercial product in 2028: a daily-wear contact lens designed to help people with presbyopia, an age-related condition that limits the eye's ability to focus on objects up close. People can address the problem with reading glasses, bifocals or progressive lenses. But a smart contact lens — essentially a battery- powered microcomputer for the eye — offers a discreet, dynamic, less awkward solution, Coles said. "I've talked to top people at all of the major vision companies who say, if you can nail a solution for presbyopia that people like, it's an instant billion-dollar company." Pantera — which employs 18 people, is headquartered in downtown Hartford's Gold Building and has raised $2 million Ryan Coles CEO, Pantera Assistant Professor of Management and Entrepreneurship, UConn Education: Bachelor's degree in Middle Eastern Studies/Arabic, Brigham Young University; master's degree in sociology, Brigham Young University; master's degree in organizational sociology, Cornell University; doctorate in organizational sociology, Cornell University Age: 38 Continued on next page COLES PHOTOS | STEVE LASCHEVER Ryan Coles, CEO of Pantera and a UConn entrepreneurship professor, is guiding a team working on a smart contact lens designed to enhance near vision.