South Korean medical AI startup Lunit gets preliminary approval to go public on KOSDAQ

Lunit, a medical AI provider, announced a preliminary approval from the Korea Exchange for initial public offering (IPO) on the KOSDAQ market. Lunit plans to submit a registration statement within the first half of 2022 to speed up its debut, while NH Investment & Securities will underwrite the IPO.

Lunit is an AI-based medical diagnosis and treatment platform company co-founded in 2013 by deep learning experts aiming to conquer cancer through AI. Its flagship products are Lunit INSIGHT, an AI image analysis solution for cancer screening, and Lunit SCOPE, an AI biomarker platform for cancer treatment.

Since the registration for IPO in November last year, Lunit became the first healthcare company to obtain an AA-AA rating from all evaluators in the technology assessment, a requisite part of the special listing track of KOSDAQ. According to recent Korean media reports, Lunit is considered one of the most anticipated biotech KOSDAQ IPOs in the first half of 2022. After the listing, Lunit plans to use secured funding for R&D of AI products and global market development, laying the cornerstone for sustainable growth.

Lunit has partnered with global medical device giants such as GE Healthcare, Philips, and FujiFilm to supply products to about 600 medical sites in more than 40 countries worldwide. In addition, Lunit is also focusing on its biomarker business by signing an exclusive business contract with Guardant Health, a leading global liquid biopsy company.

In November last year, U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted clearance for both "Lunit INSIGHT CXR Triage" and "Lunit INSIGHT MMG," Lunit's AI-based abnormality detecting solution. Lunit continues to broaden its operations in overseas markets by obtaining Medical Device Single Audit Program (MDSAP) certificates in the U.S., Canada, Japan, Australia, and Brazil.

Lunit has earned international recognition for its unprecedented, state-of-the-art AI technology. More than half of its employees are research and development (R&D) specialists, and the best-in-class advisory board of top medical and AI experts also supports the company. Based on more than 5 million high-quality medical data and more than 120 deep learning patents, Lunit raised its screening accuracy close to 99%, securing an unrivaled position in the market.

In 2020, Lunit was the only Korean company chosen as one of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneers. CB Insights has also named the company as one of the "Digital Health 150" companies in computer-aided imaging and treatment for three consecutive years starting from 2019.

Brandon Suh, CEO, Lunit: "Lunit is the first deep learning-based medical AI company in Korea with a specialized AI research team and medical team, developing AI solutions for cancer diagnosis and treatment. As our AI technologies and products are acknowledged globally, we will strive to continuously grow and pioneer the global medical AI market by going public."

www.lunit.io/en