Ministry of SMEs and Startups: "Actively Supporting Global Expansion of Innovative Technology Companies This Year"

On the 17th, On-site Meeting with Global Leading Companies in Strategic Technology Sector

Oh Young-joo, Minister of SMEs and Startups, announced that she will actively support innovative venture companies in expanding overseas.

On the 17th, Minister Oh visited VUNO, an AI medical device innovation company located in Seocho-gu, Seoul, to hear opinions on the AI sector and government research and development (R&D) policy directions.

Minister Oh Young-joo of the Ministry of SMEs and Startups is explaining the ministry's key policies at the 2024 Policy Direction Briefing held on the 11th at the Korea Federation of SMEs in Yeouido, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Photo by Jo Yong-jun jun21@

VUNO is a 10-year-old startup established in 2014. It is an AI medical device innovation company that went public on KOSDAQ in 2021 and has grown to a market capitalization of approximately 500 billion KRW. In particular, VUNO has been actively conducting global joint research, such as collaborating with 'MGH,' a hospital affiliated with Harvard Medical School in the United States, to carry out AI medical imaging clinical research since January 2022, and based on these results, obtaining FDA approval in October last year.

On this day, CEO Lee Ye-ha of VUNO introduced products that have obtained FDA approval and are about to enter the local market, as well as products recently recognized for insurance reimbursement in Japan. A home-use electrocardiogram measuring medical device was also demonstrated at the event. During the subsequent meeting, CEO Lee proposed policies to facilitate active market entry and overseas expansion of AI medical devices. Representatives from other innovative AI companies such as DeepBrain AI and Maum AI also participated, sharing stories from the policy field including trends in AX (AI Transformation). Lim Byung-hoon, president of the Innobiz Association, and Jeong Gwang-cheon, the next president, also attended to convey policy suggestions and difficulties.

Minister Oh said, “As seen at CES 2024, AX has already become a massive trend, and the Ministry of SMEs and Startups plans to promote impactful projects that nurture theme-based leading innovative companies by focusing on deep tech strategic technology fields such as AI.” She added, “We will support deep tech innovative companies in securing overseas markets through challenging global R&D and actively back the Ministry’s R&D to serve as a catalyst.”