Digital Healthcare Partners(DHP, 디지털 헬스케어 파트너스), an investment firm focused on digital healthcare startups, hosted DHP Demo Day 2023 on September 1 at Spigen Hall. The event, now in its fifth year, showcased nine digital healthcare startups that DHP has invested in and nurtured. The event was attended by more than 300 members of the healthcare startup ecosystem, including venture capitalists, startups, the medical community, academia, pharmaceutical companies, insurance companies, and startup support organizations.

DHP is an investment firm focused on digital healthcare, founded in 2016 by a group of medical and healthcare professionals. Our partners include specialists in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, and psychiatry, as well as regulatory experts from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, UX experts, and senior founders of healthcare companies such as Noom, VUNO, and Delight Room. We also have direct connections to over 3,000 healthcare organizations to provide clinical research and testbeds.

DHP is one of the most active healthcare investors in Korea, having invested in more than 40 digital healthcare startups to date. DHP-backed startups have since raised follow-on investments totaling more than $64.5 million (KRW 860 billion).

“Over the past eight years, DHP has pioneered the digital healthcare ecosystem in Korea, which was once a barren land,” said Yoon Sup Choi, CEO of DHP. “DHP is at the center of Korea’s digital healthcare ecosystem.

Yoon Sup Choi, CEO of DHP

The first team to present was Gazi Lab, which develops a personalized wellness curation platform. Youngin Kim, CEO of Gazi Lab, said their wellness curation platform helps individuals find hyper-personalized solutions. It collects personalized data through diagnostics that accurately identify an individual’s condition and recommends content, products, and communities based on it. It uses generative AI technology that learns from experts to provide more personalized solutions. To date, Gazi Lab has raised a total of $1.35 million (KRW 1.8 billion) in investment and has accumulated 30,000 diagnostic records. Recently, the company was selected as an AI alliance for NAVER HyperCLOVA X.

Youngin Kim, CEO of Gazi Lab

The second team to present was Team Elysium, which develops specialized musculoskeletal diagnosis and treatment solutions based on artificial intelligence and computer vision technology. Weonjin Kim, CEO of Team Elysium, said that musculoskeletal diseases affect one in three Koreans and account for the largest share of domestic healthcare expenditures, and introduced diagnostic solutions such as POM Checker, BALANCE Checker, and iBalance, which can provide objective figures indicating the current state of the patient.

In the long term, he said, Team Elysium plans to develop digital therapeutic devices for musculoskeletal disorders that recommend optimal exercise routines to patients and help them exercise consistently with proper posture. The company has not only received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, but also has three medical devices that can be billed on both a salaried and non-salaried basis, and has sold its products to more than 250 medical institutions to date.

Weonjin Kim, CEO of Team Elysium

The third team to present was Riduck, which uses machine learning data to develop a cycling-centric cardio training data analysis and motivation service. Sanghyuk Park, CEO of Riduck, said that the company provides an ultra-personalized cardio training management solution by analyzing data collected from cycling devices through artificial intelligence technology and self-developed energy metabolism modeling. In particular, it provides the most systematic data analysis used by professional cyclists and provides interpreted analysis content that can be easily used by the general public.

Riduck is said to be gaining popularity among cycling enthusiasts not only in Korea but also worldwide. In particular, Riduck has launched a beta version of its service and is currently acquiring users through viral referral codes. There is even a competition among cycling enthusiasts to get Riduck’s referral code. Riduck plans to go global, and beyond the current enthusiast market, the company has plans to offer training programs for professional athletes.

Sanghyuk Park, CEO of Riduck

The fourth team to present was Lighthouse, which operates the “Dailybook” service to solve communication problems between disability centers and caregivers. Shindong Kim, CEO of Lighthouse, explained that through Dailybook, disability centers can track and manage the daily activities of their users by sending notifications to their caregivers. Dailybook is currently used by more than 100 disability centers nationwide and has sent more than 45,000 notifications and 300,000 photos.

Shindong Kim, CEO of Lighthouse

The fifth team to present was Munice, which offers a sleep-inducing mobile solution called Miracle Night. Shawuy Kwon, CEO of Munice, said that Miracle Night provides a personalized sleep solution by recommending and playing sleep-inducing sounds that match the individual’s condition. She mentioned that it provides “monaural beats”, a sleep-inducing sound based on neuroscience, to induce sleep in a scientific and natural way.

She also highlighted that Miracle Night is growing its subscriber base by more than 30% per month and has a high subscription retention rate of 70-80%. In addition, Munice is experiencing rapid revenue growth, from $1,000 to $240,000 at the end of last year, and has nine patents pending. The team won the D.Camp D-Day All Star event and placed second in an international startup competition.

Shawuy Kwon, CEO of Munice

The sixth team to present was Bunnit, a fitness manager that makes exercise a habit, Burn.Fit. Hakkyun Jung, CEO of Bunnit, pointed out that strength training is an important training method that is the backbone of any workout, but it is difficult to do consistently, and most workout management services consist of a passive form of following suggested workouts or videos.

In response, he said, the Burn.Fit app allows users to take control of their workout experience by planning, recording and tracking their progress. He also emphasized that through the Burn.Fit app, Bunnit aims to provide proven workout methods for muscle growth and further build a community where quality content is shared through connections between highly engaged exercise audiences.

Burn.Fit has over 400,000 subscribers and was named the best data tracking app by Forbes Health for two consecutive years in 2022 and 2023. It was also ranked #1 in fitness in the Health & Exercise category of the most used mobile apps by Koreans in 2022.

Hakkyun Jung, CEO of Bunnit

The seventh team to present was Bosalpim, which operates Care Partner, a data-driven caregiver matching platform. Bosalpim uses technology and data to address the information asymmetry and inefficiencies faced by providers and users in the long-term care market. Han-sol Jang, CEO of Bosalpim, said that through Care Partner, Bosalpim aims to maximize the accessibility and quality of care for seniors by organically connecting caregivers, care providers and care agencies.

It does this by providing a recruitment solution to quickly find suitable caregivers, helping caregivers make informed job search decisions, and connecting caregivers with the best caregivers and agencies. Bosalpim launched Care Partner in July last year and has seen rapid growth, surpassing 10,000 cumulative applications for caregiver jobs in November.

Han-sol Jang, CEO of Bosalpim

The eighth team to present was Petner, which provides GUMP, a smart health checkup chart for veterinary clinics. Ga-rim Choi, CEO of Petner, a veterinarian and entrepreneur, pointed out that the demand for animal health checkups is increasing, but veterinarians waste a lot of time due to the inefficient manual medical system that is not digitized.

In response, Petner launched GUMP, the only smart examination board for veterinary clinics in Korea, to cut veterinarians’ examination time in half and revolutionize the workflow and user experience from booking to examination to report.

Most importantly, she said, Petner is able to collect meaningful pet health data that can be used by a variety of clients, including insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies and nutraceutical developers, in addition to pet owners. In the six months since its launch, GUMP has been adopted by 100 veterinary hospitals nationwide, including the affiliated veterinary hospital of Seoul National University, and was selected as one of the App Store’s “Korea’s Leading App Startups” in 2022.

Ga-rim Choi, CEO of Petner

The ninth and final presentation was from NEWBASE, which creates virtual hospitals for medical practice in the metaverse. Seon-young Park, CEO of NEWBASE, said that NEWBASE is a simulation solution optimized for the digital transformation of medical practice, helping doctors to train the entire process from patient visit to discharge through repeated learning without financial burden. In particular, she emphasized that it provides a high level of immersion by allowing users to create virtual digital patients based on real medical data and interact with them using different skill modules to diagnose, treat, etc.

NEWBASE won the Unity Korea Award 2022 and has been adopted by more than 50 institutions, including Seoul Asan Medical Center and Severance Hospital, and has exceeded 20,000 monthly content subscriptions.

Seon-young Park, CEO of NEWBASE