Doctors evaluate business feasibility and invest first… “We will advance Korean healthcare investment”
By?Lee Jae-myung, Seoul Economic Daily, November 7, 2022
“Korea is ranked at the top of the world in various industries including information technology (IT), but their healthcare and medical industry still has a far way to go. If the market size is small, only the outstanding ideas can succeed. If you are able to get investment at an early stage globally, you are more likely to succeed at the global stage including your home market."
Chris Lee (pictured), CEO of VentureBlick, who recently founded a startup after 30 years as a corporate leader in various global healthcare companies, met with Seoul Economic Daily on November 7th and emphasized the need for specialized investment in Korean healthcare startups. Having served as the Asia Pacific president at Bayer Healthcare and Medtronic after Merck and MSD, he assessed that “Korea has not yet had a proper (blockbuster) drug development experience,” but said, “As it possesses excellent talents and technologies, we will build an investment ecosystem that specializes in healthcare that can grow ideas that will work in the future and for the global market.”
Founded in September this year, VentureBlick is the world's only healthcare funding platform of this scale. CEO Lee jumped in to create a new platform himself, seeing that venture capitalists who lack expertise in the healthcare and medical fields are investing the conventional way.
领英推荐
CEO Lee said, "After contemplating where to devote my energy for the next 10 years until retirement, I decided to use my know-how from my experience in pharmaceutical and medical device companies in the global market in a place that is helpful to the industry." He explained, "These days, it is difficult to secure funds in the financial market, so investment in healthcare is shrinking, but we wanted to create an environment where medical innovation and ideas that are really necessary can grow steadily." In fact, in Korea alone, according to the Korea Venture Capital Association, in the third quarter of this year, the investment in the bio and medical industry was 878.7 billion won, accounting for 16.3% of the total investment, falling to the lowest level in four years.
VentureBlick's distinctive feature is in the participation of medical professionals. Based on CEO Lee’s global network, he has established VentureBlick’s presence not only in Singapore, but also in Korea, the United States, China, and Australia within two months of founding, and plans to establish subsidiaries in Germany, India, and Dubai within the next few months. Its biggest strength is that it allows the business plans of early-stage healthcare startups to be reviewed by a global pool of doctors and medical professionals, and thereafter, doctors can directly lead investment in units of $10,000. Once the healthcare innovations are showcased on the platform, investors around the world get the opportunity to fund validated startups.
CEO Lee said, “For example, it is a method of cultivating startups that are most helpful to the medical field and patients, such as cardiologists directly evaluating and investing in new drug that are promising. We will create the only investment ecosystem that not only verifies business feasibility through the professional network but also continues providing consultation for startups.”
CEO Lee continued, "Up until last month, 120 startups from 17 countries have already pre-applied for investment, and about 30 potential investors have showed interest in our platform. We look forward to the launch of our investment platform.”
This is an English translation of the original article by Seoul Economic Daily first published on November 7, 2022. Read the original piece?in Korean here.