SKT Partners with Japan's Largest Pet Insurance Group to Accelerate Global Expansion

Partnership with Japan's Largest Pet Insurance Group
Over 3,000 Monthly Uses at 300 Domestic Hospitals
Expansion of Diagnostic Scope to Companion Cats and Ecosystem Growth through External Collaboration

SK Telecom is accelerating the global business of Excalibur by signing a partnership agreement with Anicom Holdings, Japan's largest pet insurance group. On the 26th, SKT, which unveiled its vision as a 'Global AI Company,' launched Excalibur in Korea, introducing AI into the pet healthcare sector to enhance industry productivity and efficiency. Within just one year of its launch, Excalibur has grown into a leading pet medical AI service used in more than 300 animal hospitals nationwide.

Partnership with Japan's Largest Pet Insurance Group to Pioneer Overseas Markets

To enter the Japanese market with Excalibur, SKT signed a strategic partnership with Anicom Holdings, Japan's largest pet insurance group, on the 20th of last month at SK Telecom headquarters in Euljiro, Seoul. Anicom Holdings holds subsidiaries engaged in various pet-related businesses, including the top pet insurance company in Japan with a 46% market share, an electronic chart solution company, and animal hospital operators.

SKT plans to collaborate on AI healthcare research and medical service development for pets by utilizing its AI technology alongside Anicom Holdings' pet lifecycle data (infancy, adulthood, senior stages). Additionally, SKT signed a business cooperation agreement with Anicom Pafe, a subsidiary of Anicom Holdings specializing in electronic chart solutions, to distribute Excalibur to animal hospitals across Japan.

Excalibur Used Over 3,000 Times Monthly in More Than 300 Domestic Locations, Establishing Itself as a Leading Pet Medical AI Service

Excalibur, which analyzes pet X-ray images and provides diagnostic results within 15 seconds, has established itself as a representative pet medical AI service used by over 300 animal hospitals nationwide within one year of its launch. Considering that there are about 3,000 animal hospitals equipped with X-ray devices out of approximately 4,000 total animal hospitals in Korea, Excalibur has achieved roughly a 10% market share.

Over the past year, Excalibur has analyzed a total of 37,000 animal diagnostic data cases. This means that Excalibur is used more than 3,000 times monthly across over 300 animal hospitals nationwide. One of the most frequent applications of Excalibur is in diagnosing heart disease by evaluating the heart size of dogs. Excalibur’s heart size evaluation is highly accurate and has reduced the typical time required from about 1 minute and 30 seconds to just 15 seconds?one-sixth of the usual time?thereby improving veterinarians’ clinical environments.

Expanding Diagnostic Scope to Cats by Year-End and Growing the Pet AI Healthcare Ecosystem Through External Collaboration

As the number of pet-owning households surpasses 6 million and ‘pet humanization’?treating pets as people and family members?spreads, interest in pet health and the related medical market is growing. Excalibur opened the era of AI healthcare for pets by becoming the first in Korea to receive approval from the Animal and Plant Quarantine Agency for X-ray-based ‘animal medical imaging detection assistance software.’ Currently, it can diagnose most diseases related to dogs’ musculoskeletal system, chest, heart, and abdomen, and plans to expand its diagnostic scope to include cats by the end of the year.

Ham Min-yong, SKT’s Chief Digital Officer (CDO), stated, “SKT is promoting AIX (AI Transformation) to drive AI adoption across various industries, and Excalibur is a representative service of this AIX initiative. We will do our best to grow Excalibur into Korea’s leading pet AI healthcare service and expand it globally.”