[Reading Science] The Future of Korea's Biomedical Engineering Market Opened by Startups and Scaling Up Companies

Ybrain, Lunit, VUNO, and Medifutures in the Spotlight

If hospitals evolve into "living laboratories," the main drivers creating new technologies within those labs are startups and scaling-up companies.

In the domestic biomedical engineering sector, innovative companies are partnering with hospitals to design the future healthcare ecosystem, focusing on digital health, electroceuticals, medical devices, and medical artificial intelligence (AI).

Among Korean biomedical engineering startups, Ybrain is the most prominent. Founded in 2013, Ybrain is a leading domestic electroceutical company led by engineers from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST). The company developed "Mindsteam," the first electroceutical for depression in Korea, which received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.

With its brainwave measurement and analysis device "Mindscan," Ybrain opened the digital therapeutics market for mental health.

In the AI-based medical diagnostics sector, Lunit and VUNO are recognized as leading players. Lunit has developed AI solutions to assist in the diagnosis of lung and breast cancer, collaborating with global pharmaceutical companies such as Roche and Guardant Health. VUNO supplies AI imaging interpretation systems, including "VUNO Med Chest X-ray," to major medical institutions such as Asan Medical Center in Seoul.

Medifutures, a precision medical device company, is commercializing advanced medical technologies such as microneedles and smart catheters, expanding its hospital validation network.

Dr. Noah Biotech, an AI-based drug discovery startup, is taking on the challenge of identifying new drug candidates using its combination drug prediction platform for neurological diseases, "ARK." Data scientists and pharmaceutical experts are leading research to enhance the clinical applicability of AI models.

The market is also growing rapidly. According to the Korea Institute of S&T Evaluation and Planning (KISTEP), the global digital health market was estimated at $180.2 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow at an average annual rate of about 25%, reaching $549.6 billion by 2028.

According to market research firm Grand View Research, South Korea's AI healthcare market was valued at approximately $352.8 million (about 501.7 billion won) in 2023 and is projected to grow at an average annual rate of 40.5%, reaching around $3.809 billion (about 5.4168 trillion won) by 2030.

As the expansion of AI healthcare and digital health accelerates, biomedical engineering is expected to become a central pillar of the biohealth industry in the 2030s.

However, the domestic medical device industry remains heavily equipment-centered, and there is a strong perception that it is a high-cost, high-risk industry. Startups are striving to overcome these structural limitations through innovations based on software and data-driven technologies.

Lee Ki-won, CEO of Ybrain, explained, "The high-cost structure of the medical device industry persists because thinking remains hardware-oriented. Only by shifting to software and data-driven technologies can we lower both cost and accessibility barriers."

He further noted, "The biggest hurdle in commercializing medical devices is not the regulations themselves, but the uncertainty and lengthy timelines associated with them. To shorten the commercialization period, a fast-track integrated review system by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, as well as an automatic listing system for non-reimbursed items, should be established."

Hospitals provide clinical data and testbeds, startups offer agile technology development and problem-solving capabilities, and the government supplies the institutional foundation. If biomedical engineering transforms the medical field, startups are the experimenters who turn that innovation into reality.