Korean Health Startups Land VC Talks and Stanford Ties in Silicon Valley

Investors and hospitals

The participants were MAIT (AI diagnosis of infant hip dysplasia), Hahaeho (an AI health companion for seniors and cancer survivors), ForetellMyHealth (platelet-based liquid biopsy and AI for early cancer detection), Belltherapeutics (sound-based digital therapeutics for insomnia) and SevenPoint One (voice-based screening for people at high risk of dementia).

At an October 23 VC roundtable, investors first presented their funds, then heard the five pitches. Each attending VC allocated a notional $5 million among the teams, and ForetellMyHealth received the most. Firms present included Fupa Ventures, Numen Ventures, LG Technology Ventures and Novo Holdings. A new networking dinner on October 27 added investors such as Fusion Fund and Riverwood Capital. In all, the teams met 18 investors, and according to DHP, ForetellMyHealth, SevenPoint One and MAIT have moved into follow-up meetings and investment review with some of them.

On the clinical side, the teams met faculty in neurology, orthopedics, radiology and pediatrics at Stanford, as well as clinicians at Kaiser Permanente and UCSF. MAIT plans to start a data use agreement and a HIPAA business associate agreement with Stanford pediatric orthopedics, and to sign an NDA with Kaiser Permanente to move research talks forward.

Big tech and mentors

On October 28 the teams visited Microsoft's Mountain View briefing center, kicking off a collaboration DHP had discussed with Microsoft for months. On October 29 they met healthcare staff at OpenAI in San Francisco. Lunit co-founder Paik Seung-wook and Blind co-founder Kim Sung-kyum offered advice, and the teams also took part in Stanford Biodesign sessions.

DHP said the first cohort in February produced more than 30 business results, including clinical and distribution contracts, and at least one case of real revenue after a proof of concept. DHP and Outsome plan to run the bootcamp regularly beyond next year.