Digital Healthcare Investment Platform Established... DHP Demo Day Held

Digital Healthcare Partners

Gajilab, Team Elysium, Rideok
Lighthouse, Munis, Burnit
Bosalpim, Petner, Newbase, etc.

Portfolio Companies Given Pitching Opportunities

As the digital healthcare industry experiences rapid growth, a gathering was held for digital healthcare startups that have newly taken on the challenge of entrepreneurship. These companies showcased their strengths and shared their visions for a rosy future with investors and others.

On the 1st, participants are taking a commemorative photo at the 2023 Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) Demo Day held at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Chunhee]

On the 1st, a 'Demo Day' was held at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP), a specialized investment firm for digital healthcare startups, presented the startups they have invested in and nurtured.

In his opening remarks introducing DHP, CEO Yoonseop Choi emphasized DHP's greatest strength as its expertise. He said, "We jokingly say that we could create a general hospital within DHP," highlighting that "about half of the 17 partners are doctors, there are six senior entrepreneur partners, and we have indispensable healthcare regulatory experts and a medical network of 3,000 beds."

Through this, DHP, which has conducted a total of 38 investments so far, continues to invest not only as a typical venture capital but also considering the uniqueness of digital healthcare, medical validity, and actual demand in medical fields, living up to its slogan as the only specialized investment firm for digital healthcare startups in Korea.

At the Demo Day, considering these characteristics, nine companies from DHP's portfolio?Gajilab, Team Elysium, Rideok, Lighthouse, Moonis, Burnit, Bosalhim, Petner, and Newbase?introduced their companies and answered questions from the audience.

Kim Young-in, CEO of Gajilab, is giving a company presentation at the 2023 Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) Demo Day held on the 1st at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Chun-hee]

The first presenter, Youngin Kim, CEO of Gajilab, said, "When I worked at Noom, I noticed that domestic consumers tended to ask more about specific products rather than help with concrete actions," introducing Gajilab as a "personalized wellness curation platform" that provides the most suitable wellness solutions from an individual perspective.

Since it is personalized, the most important technology is inevitably curation technology. CEO Kim mentioned that they recently introduced generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a solution. Thanks to their investment relationship, they had the opportunity to use Naver's generative AI 'Hyper ClovaX' first. He explained, "The concept of curation itself fits well with generative AI," adding, "It changes the user experience (UX) of the diagnostic process into a natural chat, drawing out personalization."

Moreover, they are also developing a narrower scope of 'employee wellness' beyond simple wellness. Gajilab recently recruited Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) Nai Kim, an expert in career acceleration, and developed a counseling chatbot service as a solution. CEO Kim stated, "We are currently developing a weight loss chatbot," and outlined future plans, saying, "Since the wellness market is very large, even capturing 5% of it could generate sales of about 600 billion KRW, and we aim for sales in the 20 billion KRW range within three years."

Kim Won-jin, CEO of Team Elysium, is giving a company presentation at the 2023 Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) Demo Day held on the 1st at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Chun-hee]

Next, Wonjin Kim, CEO of Team Elysium, which develops musculoskeletal diagnostic and treatment solutions, cited market potential as the reason for founding the company. He emphasized, "Musculoskeletal diseases, such as neck and lumbar disc issues, are common and rank first in domestic medical expenses," adding, "We expected significant returns."

Currently focusing on diagnostics, Team Elysium is creating local diagnostic solutions such as body shape analysis combined with hardware and is now expanding its business. CEO Kim said, "From this year, we are expanding into traditional Korean medical institutions, fitness centers, and Pilates," and added, "In line with the government's emphasis on the importance of body shape imbalance in adolescents, we operate screening and management programs for elementary schools in Nowon-gu and for the elderly."

He also revealed plans to develop digital therapeutics (DTx). CEO Kim stated, "Although we have only done diagnostics so far, we aim to target the backend with DTx products," and expressed his ambition, saying, "We plan to start exploratory clinical trials within this year and become a leading company in musculoskeletal diseases."

Kwon Seohyun, CEO of Moonis, is giving a company presentation at the 2023 Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) Demo Day held on the 1st at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Chunhee]

Seohyun Kwon, CEO of Moonis, said, "We want to create a solution that takes full responsibility for sleep health," and developed 'Miracle Night,' a sleep induction mobile solution based on 'monaural beats' that help with sleep. He explained the start of development by saying, "I also have hair loss and was prescribed medication at a hospital," but later "I felt tired in the morning and experienced stress-induced hair loss, so I stopped taking the medication."

Describing Miracle Night as a "digital sleeping pill tailored to me," CEO Kwon emphasized that by utilizing monaural beats, it is highly effective, personalized, and free of side effects, thus increasing accessibility. He also pointed out that actual customer retention rates prove these effects. He said, "The retention rate is at least 59%, indicating that it is a sleep solution suited to users and effective enough for them to return and use it again," adding, "Since good sleep is endless, we will create a solution that takes full responsibility for sleep health."

Jang Hansol, CEO of Bosalkeem, is giving a company presentation at the 2023 Digital Healthcare Partners (DHP) Demo Day held on the 1st at Spigen Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul.
[Photo by Lee Chunhee]

Hansol Jang, CEO of Bosalhim, which operates the data-driven caregiver brokerage platform 'Care Partner,' said, "As aging accelerates, the demand and supply of caregivers are rapidly increasing," and explained the motivation behind the service, saying, "However, caregivers find it difficult to properly find and understand job opportunities."

Care Partner provides services based on maps or natural language chatbots, moving away from traditional group chat rooms or bulletin board-style services to enable easy job searching and recruitment. CEO Jang emphasized, "Previously, institutions could only post announcements and wait," adding, "We allow them to make the first contact and provide management functions such as labor contract and schedule adjustments after hiring, developing services for both sides."

CEO Jang expressed ambitions to evolve beyond simple job matching through various functional expansions, ultimately becoming a silver care platform. First, with the introduction of caregiver continuing education, they provide educational services, and they are also preparing services to help those aspiring to become caregivers with certification preparation. He said, "This is not just a caregiver matching service but will evolve into a B2B2C care service brokerage," adding, "Furthermore, we plan to expand into a silver care platform including finance and medical services."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.