Korean startups’ prowess has been attracting prominent global investors. Digital healthcare startup ‘VNTC’ has attracted investment for the fifth time from the US-based Tuna Investment. The amount is confidential.
Tuna Investment is an investment company led by Steve Chen, who is well-known as the founder of YouTube. Starting with LSK Investment in 2017, VNT has attracted investments from Enlight Ventures (2018), Hanwha Investment & Securities (2020), and Crystal Genomics (2021).
Founded in 2016 in digital health care, the company has been focusing on the field of ‘scoliosis,’ developing products centered on actual users and building up technological prowess. Through this, it holds nine domestic and foreign patents in related fields. Behind the latest investment, VNTC’s Korean beef water strategy was a key factor.
The startup to make the world’s first ICT-based scoliosis orthosis device
VNTC is set to launch the world’s first ICT-based scoliosis orthosis device developed by combining IT sensors and software with the wearability of existing products for long-term scoliosis treatment patients. VNTC’s launched product, ‘Spinamic,’ is a product that enhances the compliance of scoliosis patients and does not miss the corrective power. The corrective power is comparable to the existing ‘ rigid orthosis,’ using a soft and flexible material instead of the conventional hard plastic material to increase wearability and apply the three-point pressure principle.
In 2018, VNTC received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the US FDA, and in 2022, the PDAC insurance code was issued in the US, laying for its foothold for active entry into the US market. VNTC CEO Noh Kyung-seok said, “I think that our technological prowess and global business expandability have been recognized as we received investment from the legendary founder of Silicon Valley. We will do our best to understand the disease and its products, research and develop it, and make better medical solutions.”
The investor Steve Chen founded YouTube at 27 and sold it to Google for $1.65 billion (about 2 trillion won) within 18 months of founding. After the sale of YouTube, he stayed in Silicon Valley and continued to startup and invest, but he recently returned to Taiwan and is an active investor.
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