[Life Act 3 Companies] Digital Eye Health Startup 'Pixelro'..."Diagnosing Eyes Easily Like InBody"

Kang Seok-myeong as Representative of Pixelro

A Galaxy Tab the size of a forearm stands on a holder, displaying a self-camera mode screen. When you cover one eye and stand about 40cm away in front of the screen that says, "Please check the distance while covering your eyes," you move on to the vision test stage. On the 21st, I met CEO Kang Seok-myeong (47) in front of the office of 'Pixelro,' located in the Gyeonggi Seongnam City Enterprise Support Hub, who demonstrated and introduced their product, the eye health self-diagnosis kiosk. In front of the office, besides the kiosk, eye care products developed by Pixelro such as vision protection films and blue light blocking glasses were displayed on shelves.

"When elderly people come to ophthalmology clinics for eye problems, many cases are already on the verge of blindness. There is a saying, 'If the body is worth a thousand nyang, the eyes are worth nine hundred nyang,' which shows how important eyes are in our lives. I thought there was a need for a service that could prevent eye diseases." (Kang Seok-myeong, CEO of Pixelro)

According to the Health Insurance Review & Assessment Service, the number of domestic patients treated for eye diseases increased from 2.4 per 10 people in 2009 to 2.9 per 10 people in 2019. Cases of macular degeneration, known as an age-related eye disease, doubled from 101,000 to 203,000. As we enter a super-aged society soon, the number of patients is expected to increase further.

Pixelro is a company that creates self-diagnosis services to prevent eye diseases and sells related products. It was born in 2016 through Samsung Electronics' in-house venture program. At that time, four Samsung Electronics employees joined forces to create it.

CEO Kang (47) is the only one remaining among the original four and leads the company with eight employees. Two of the four returned to Samsung Electronics, but he wanted to continue the business. Kang said, "I want to work for people's health and happiness through digital eye health-related products and services."

Kang Seok-myeong, CEO of Pixelro, is explaining the company's product, the AI eye health self-diagnosis kiosk. Photo by Heo Young-han younghan@

- Please introduce Pixelro.

▲We diagnose eye health based on digital sensing technology. We are commercializing kiosks and service applications that allow self-diagnosis of macular degeneration, vision measurement, and presbyopia accommodation. In addition to these services, we develop and sell presbyopia correction films and vision protection films for eye health.

- What did you do before starting the company?

▲I joined Samsung Electronics as a hardware developer and worked there for 17 years. I worked in the field of micro LED development. I worked in research and met many companies that came to deliver technology (solutions). Through that experience, I learned a lot about technology.

- Why did you quit a well-established company?

▲Originally, I planned to work for only two years and then return to Samsung Electronics. But when I saw the lives of seniors who left the company after working well, they had well-raised children but still had apartments with debts. Many seniors were scouted as directors of smaller companies or moved to consulting positions after leaving. However, that was not the ideal future I envisioned. The company also told me that technical sales suited my personality better than being an engineer. I agreed. My life goal became to have 'one product I made' sold somewhere anywhere in the world. So, I quit completely at the end of 2017 and focused on running Pixelro.

- Why did you decide to develop a business model related to eye health self-diagnosis?

▲Among the five senses, vision is said to be the one people least want to lose. However, unless you visit an ophthalmologist, there are not many ways to check eye health. Even an InBody machine often seen in gyms or hospitals can provide information such as weight, skeletal muscle mass, water, and protein, but you cannot know eye health. Even national health checkups only conduct formal vision tests. Just as you can measure heart rate and stress anywhere with a smartwatch, eye health should also be easily diagnosable. I thought IT technology to manage eye health would gain attention in this era approaching a super-aged society.

- What items can be diagnosed through the eye health diagnosis kiosk?

▲Vision tests, macular degeneration tests, and eye accommodation (presbyopia) measurements. The goal is to increase the number of items to screen overall eye health.

- You also make vision protection films besides the kiosk.

▲We developed a smartphone screen attachment film that provides a clear screen tailored to people with presbyopia. When viewing an unclear screen or when the focus is off, the eyes worsen. The reason why you should not read in a moving car is that the letters keep shaking, causing eye fatigue and affecting vision deterioration. So, we developed a film that makes the screen clearer. Feedback says it reduces light glare and is comfortable for the eyes. Especially, people who had LASIK or LASEK like it. We even exported it to Japan and other countries.

- How is the sales performance? Do you have investment plans?

▲Last year, we made about 700 million KRW in sales. This year's goal is 1 billion KRW. We are currently working on advanced development of the kiosk, and once completed, we plan to raise Series A investment.

- Do you have plans for overseas expansion?

▲I recently met a buyer from Qatar. Qatar has a population of 2.71 million, and 10% are students. Through the buyer, we wanted to supply kiosks to schools, but it would be easier if we get medical device certification in Korea. We are trying to obtain medical device classification. We also plan to work on Official Development Assistance (ODA) projects in Southeast Asia. The Southeast Asian region has strong sunlight and many eye disease patients. Our goal is to supply kiosks to prevent eye diseases.

- What are your future goals?

▲We are currently conducting demonstration projects with Daegu Technopark, the Korean Senior Citizens Association, and obstetrics and gynecology clinics. We have participated twice in the CES electronic exhibition and plan to attend an exhibition in Japan this year to showcase our products. Honestly, I have no desire to go public. Our goal is to be acquired by a healthcare-related company. It would be more beneficial for a company with greater social influence to use our services. Until then, we plan to continue many B2G (business-to-government) and B2B (business-to-business) projects as we do now.