Post-COVID-19 'Remote Medical Care' Rises... Samsung Electronics Focuses on Venture Investment

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] As the importance of non-face-to-face industries has been emphasized since COVID-19, the remote medical market is gaining attention, and Samsung Electronics has also embarked on discovering new businesses through venture investments. From last year to recently, Samsung Electronics has been broadly investing in various remote medical industries such as remote medical solutions, medical data sharing, and artificial intelligence (AI) medical diagnostic services.

According to foreign media and industry sources on the 30th, Samsung Catalyst Fund, operated by Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center under Samsung Electronics, made a strategic investment on the 27th (local time) in Ada Health, a German developer of an 'AI doctor' application. Recently, Ada Health succeeded in raising $90 million in Series B funding, with investors including German pharmaceutical company Bayer, Samsung Catalyst Fund, Vitruvian Partners, and Intelligo Bank.

Founded in 2011 in Berlin, Germany, Ada Health is a company that develops and operates the ‘AI doctor app.’ The Ada app features a 24-hour operating AI chatbot that identifies patient symptoms and provides diagnoses through Q&A. It schedules face-to-face medical appointments with doctors within three days and shares medical records through a data system. The app has been downloaded over 11 million times to date.

Samsung Electronics is investing in various industries to discover new businesses through the Catalyst Fund operated by Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center, Samsung Venture Investment, and Samsung Next. While previous new business investments were concentrated in IT sectors such as quantum computing and fintech services, since COVID-19, investments have been expanding into the remote medical solution field, which diagnoses patients remotely and shares medical data.

In July last year, Samsung Catalyst Fund led a Series B investment in the U.S. remote medical startup Genome Medical. Genome Medical is a bio company focused on health management areas such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases. Through Samsung’s investment, it improved its platform compatible with wearable devices and expanded clinical operations. In the same month, Samsung Catalyst Fund also participated in investing in the U.S. medical diagnostic service company Preventis Solutions. This startup provides mobile solutions and remote monitoring services connecting patients with cardiac arrhythmia and doctors.

In November last year, Samsung Venture Investment made an investment in Human API, a developer of a medical data sharing platform. Human API is a company that has built a network allowing users to easily check their health data and share it with third parties such as doctors and insurance companies. Recently, in May of this year, Samsung Next also invested in the UK remote medical service company Huma. Huma is a company that developed a platform supporting medical systems by utilizing real-time health data from smartphones.