[Edaily Reporter YU JIN-HEE ] Yuhan(000100), a strategic investor (SI) and distribution partner of Huino, a leading digital healthcare company, has significantly expanded its purchase volume of new in-hospital monitoring solutions. This is the result of word-of-mouth spreading regarding product adoption, particularly among large general hospitals, which has led to a rapid expansion of the on-site distribution network. Based on this large confirmed order volume, Huino achieved sales in the first half of the year alone that nearly matched its total annual sales from last year. Building on this momentum, the company plans to accelerate its KOSDAQ initial public offering (IPO) process.

Driven by Word-of-Mouth, Yuhan Corporation Secures Order for 1,000 Beds

According to the pharmaceutical, biotech, and investment banking (IB) industries on the 14th, Yuhan Corporation recently submitted a purchase order to Huino for a total of 1,000 beds’ worth of core wearable devices for its AI-based smart in-hospital monitoring solution, “MEMO CUE.” This order is valued at 4 billion won under a single supply contract.

This order is not merely a sales forecast. It is a firm order placed to proactively secure inventory based on actual pre-order demand from medical institutions and the confirmation of suppliers. In fact, additional supply contracts for the second half of the year are already lined up sequentially. Consequently, the industry anticipates that Huino’s supply of MEMO CUE will easily exceed at least 2,500 beds by the end of the year.

Driven by this across-the-board improvement in supply and demand, Huino’s financial indicators have also reached a turning point. It is estimated that Huino achieved cumulative sales of 6 billion won in the first half of this year alone, surpassing last year’s total annual revenue. If revenue recognition for the order from Yuhan begins in earnest in the second half and additional supplies follow, this year’s revenue is projected to exceed 15 billion won, reaching an all-time high. Through reforms to streamline R&D spending focused on core specialized personnel, the company has brought breaking even (BEP) by the end of this year within reach.

While solidifying its financial foundation, Huino plans to begin the process of listing on KOSDAQ in earnest. Some in the capital markets have raised concerns that Huino’s valuation at the time of its previous funding round (set at 300 billion won during the Series C round) could become a burden during the listing process, citing comparisons with the stock price trends and financial statements of its recently listed competitor, #SEERS. However, Huino’s strategy is to forge ahead head-on by leveraging its differentiated medical artificial intelligence (AI) and its ultra-low-power hardware development capabilities—which were developed with patient safety as the top priority—along with its overwhelming market share figures.

AI Technology That Dramatically Reduces False Alarms... Accelerating Expansion Beyond Korea into the U.S. and Japan

Hueino’s strongest asset—an area where it holds an overwhelming lead over competitors—is the medical AI sector. Hueino’s software technology is also among the best in the world. Its proprietary arrhythmia detection model, “MEMO AI,” has been trained on over 750,000 high-quality clinical ECG data points. In 2021, the company demonstrated its technical prowess by taking first place in the “PhysioNet Challenge,” a global medical AI competition organized by Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In particular, it has dramatically reduced “alarm fatigue” caused by false-positive alerts—a long-standing frustration for physicians in clinical settings. Rather than focusing solely on the absolute accuracy of alarms, it uses beat-by-beat precision analysis to completely eliminate unnecessary false alarms compared to competitors, thereby maximizing the productivity of medical staff. This recognition affirms its value as an essential diagnostic assistance technology.

Huino’s expertise extends beyond medical AI to include unparalleled hardware capabilities. In fact, the company was the first in Korea to introduce a wearable patch that operates safely even for patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) and pacemakers (PPMs). This is made possible by its unique capability to maintain continuous monitoring without turning off the device, even for hospitalized patients with implanted cardiac devices or during defibrillation emergencies.

As a result, the company has obtained “CF-class defibrillation protection” certification—the highest safety rating in the global medical device sector—as well as U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for entry into the U.S. market. In terms of low-power technology, Huino’s wearable patch, the “MemoPatch M” ECG monitor, enables long-term continuous measurement for up to 14 days, giving the company an unrivaled lead in the domestic market.

This significant technological lead is reflected in the numbers. According to an analysis of Holter monitoring statistics by the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service (HIRA), Huino currently holds a market share of over 40% in the market for tertiary general hospitals—the top-tier medical institutions in Korea—despite having entered the market approximately two years later than its competitors. Based on these overwhelming performance metrics, capital market experts predict that if Huino proceeds with an IPO, it will easily achieve a public offering valuation at least twice as high as that of its competitors.

Huino has also moved beyond its initial business structure, which centered on the remote “Memo Watch”—the first product approved under the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Regulatory Sandbox. The company has now fully completed its business pivot—a strategy of realigning its business model or direction in response to market feedback—led by “Memo Q,” a real-time in-hospital telemetry solution that has successfully secured National Health Insurance reimbursement (EX871, ECG monitoring fee). A prime example is the recent completion of its first large-scale deployment—covering 100 beds—at H+ Yangji Hospital. Following this, the company has built a strong domestic track record by completing deployments across approximately 1,000 beds of infrastructure specialized in cardiac diseases at major hospitals nationwide, including the Department of Cardiology and the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at Korea University Anam Hospital, the Department of Cardiology at Busan Veterans Hospital, and Gangneung Korea University Hospital. A key factor in this success was the solution’s flexibility, which allows it to be implemented without any additional capital expenditure (CAPEX) on civil infrastructure by leveraging hospitals’ existing Wi-Fi and LTE networks.

In addition, the company has introduced “Vital-PICASO,” an AI-based solution for the early prediction of clinical deterioration, developed in collaboration with Seoul National University Hospital and Professor Matsushita’s research team at Johns Hopkins University in the United States. The hypotension prediction model, which anticipates patient deterioration, achieved remarkable performance with an accuracy metric (AUROC) of 0.91. Based on this year’s Innovative Medical Device Manufacturing Certification from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, the company is on the verge of obtaining approval for non-insured billing in Korea and commercialization. This marks the completion of a “End-to-End Monitoring Ecosystem” that integrates outpatient care (Memo Care), inpatient care (Memo Q), and prediction (Vital-PICASO) into a single platform.

The company is also in the final stages of preparing to enter the global market. To target the Japanese market—where the patient population is more than eight times larger than in Korea and where a remote healthcare insurance reimbursement system has already been established—the company is finalizing partnership negotiations with a local global medical device distributor. Tangible export contract results are expected within the year. To enter the massive U.S. market, the company is actively leveraging the Johns Hopkins Hospital network to simultaneously conduct a five-year long-term project focused on optimizing the interface with local electronic medical record (EMR) systems. The plan is to secure direct supply channels to major U.S. hospitals, such as Harvard Medical School, to proactively build a foundation of local clinical evidence.

Gil Young-jun, CEO of Huino, emphasized, “Building on the solid distribution synergy with Yuhan Corporation, we are expanding our market focus on cardiovascular diseases and broadening the supply of Memo Q to all types of hospital wards.” He added, “In the second half of this year, we will clearly demonstrate Huino’s true corporate value through concrete performance metrics and financial results in the capital markets, based on our market share in leading domestic hospitals and our success in entering the massive global market.”