IPO Price Set at 15,000 KRW for May KOSDAQ Listing
Valuation Considers Similar Companies Like Lunit, Deepnoid, Vuno
Expanding Business Areas in Healthcare and Payments with World-Class AI Technology
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology developer CUBox is showing strong performance. It appears that the news of signing a business agreement with future-oriented health management platform operator MyBenefit to develop AI healthcare services is influencing the stock price. While medical AI-related stocks such as Lunit, Vuno, and Deepnoid have surged sharply in the domestic stock market, CUBox, which has risen relatively less, is seeing an expansion of buying interest. CUBox is expanding its scope into healthcare and convenient payment services by utilizing world-class facial recognition AI technology.
As of 10:17 a.m. on the 23rd, CUBox was trading at 12,200 KRW, up 18.91% from the previous day. Its market capitalization has recovered to 120 billion KRW.
CUBox entered the KOSDAQ market on the 19th with a public offering price of 15,000 KRW. On the first day of listing, the stock price fell 11% from the opening price, dropping to around 13,000 KRW.
Founded in 2010, CUBox is an AI technology developer. It boasts various solutions and systems related to AI facial recognition. It supplies AI systems to national security facilities such as the automated immigration inspection gates at Incheon International Airport, four major government buildings, and the National Information Resources Service. The facial recognition market size is expected to reach tens of trillions of KRW annually.
In 2020, based on its independently developed facial recognition algorithm, CUBox ranked 24th globally in the Facial Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) conducted by the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). In 2021, it achieved first place globally in five categories. It holds world-class facial recognition technology, including being the first in Korea to obtain ISO 30107-3 certification for facial anti-spoofing technology.
Through the business agreement, MyBenefit will utilize CUBox’s video recognition AI technology in healthcare kiosks supplied to the Sejong Government Complex and schools to provide personalized services. MyBenefit’s self-developed healthcare kiosks use deep learning to recognize users’ movements and check their health status. Based on this, healthcare content is provided. By integrating CUBox’s video recognition technology, personalized services will identify members based on AI facial recognition technology. It plans to offer stronger personalized content by understanding individual health conditions.
CUBox recently started developing a facial payment solution (CUBox Pay), which will be linked with kiosks to maximize user convenience. Targeting middle-aged and elderly people suffering from four major diseases?sarcopenia, mild cognitive impairment, diabetes, and cancer?the two companies plan to promote an IT-based innovative silver business by familiarizing users with kiosk utilization. CUBox is also reportedly developing a diagnostic solution in collaboration with large hospitals to analyze disease names and progression status from images obtained during medical examinations.
Yoon Cheol-hwan, a researcher at Korea Investment & Securities, said, "CUBox is a specialized company in the facial recognition field among AI vision technologies," adding, "They have internalized the entire process for AI commercialization, from AI training data refinement, analysis algorithms, solution development using algorithms, to hardware design, securing their own technological capabilities."
CUBox was listed on the KOSDAQ market on May 19 with a public offering price of 15,000 KRW. The stock price fell below the public offering price as investors who invested before the listing realized profits. At the time of listing, the underwriter valued CUBox’s stock at 34,778 KRW per share. Applying a discount rate of 33.3% to 51%, the expected public offering price range was suggested as 17,200 to 23,200 KRW. Although Deepnoid, Lunit, and Vuno were candidates for comparable companies, considering their deficit status, Selvas AI and WiseEye were selected as the final comparable companies.
Nam Un-seong, CEO of CUBox, said in an interview just before the listing, "We will grow into the world’s top video recognition AI technology company," adding, "We have already proven our strength as a top-tier company and will become a global company with a market capitalization exceeding 1 trillion KRW."
Nam also expressed confidence, saying, "We are showcasing various technologies such as restoring 2D images to 3D and generating videos from text. Along with medical image diagnostic AI, we can do everything possible with video."
CUBox is accelerating research and development (R&D). It has invested about 10 billion KRW solely in graphics processing units (GPUs), representing a large-scale investment relative to its size. Currently, it has about 110 employees, most of whom are engaged in R&D. The company plans to focus on recruiting AI personnel.
Seong Hyun-dong, a researcher at KB Securities, analyzed, "They have secured the technologies and high-quality data necessary for the entire AI development process," adding, "They have built a reference base with unique technological capabilities by advancing algorithms through an AI data platform."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
