SK Networks chooses US healthcare startup LVIS as its first 2021 invest target

[Photo provided by SK Networks Co.]

SK Networks Co., a rental service arm under South Korea’s third-largest conglomerate SK Group, announced on Tuesday that it will participate in $15 million series B funding for American digital healthcare startup LVIS.

SK Holdings, now known as SK Inc., previously invested in LVIS in 2018.

LVIS is a Silicon Valley-based startup that diagnoses and treats neurological diseases. It was founded in 2013 by Lee Jin Hyung, the first South Korean woman to be appointed as a professor at Stanford University.

LVIS developed ‘NeuroMatch’, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based deep learning software that analyzes brain circuits to diagnose various neurological diseases such as dementia and epilepsy. LVIS also proposes optimal neurological treatments. LVIS has over 20 patents and 140,000 medical data under its belt.

SK Networks values LVIS’s neural information analysis technologies for finding new diagnostic and treatment solutions. It has high hopes for the LVIS vision of grooming its diagnosis and cure technology to become a ‘Digital Neuro-health Platform’ that can provide detailed brain health assessments. Utilizing an AI-based treatment may greatly increase time and cost efficiency of current neurological disease treatment methods.

SK Networks announced during its new year’s address on Jan. 3 vowed to up investment mostly in Digital Transformation (DT) and AI.

SK Networks plans to expand its network in the healthcare field and look for other investment opportunities using its partnership with LVIS.

“AI is expected to be applied in almost all industries in the future and AI-based digital healthcare industry is expected to grow at least 30% annually from 2020 to 2030,” said Chung Han-jong, head of Global Investment Center at SK Networks. “We will continue to invest in companies that have promising AI technologies.

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