UNIST has announced that its student-led venture company, Thyroscope Inc. (CEO JaeMin Park) has been selected as a grand prize winner of the 2020 CheongCheongCon competition, held by the Korean Ministry of SMEs and Startups (MSS). This award has been bestowed to Thyroscope Inc. in recognition of its excellent technical skills and high business value in the smart healthcare sector. As part of this award, the company has won KRW 150 million in prize money.
The term CheongCheongCon, which is otherwise known as the youth startup competition, is an acronym for the ‘Startup Contest, in which Senior Youth (Cheong-nyun) Entrepreneurs Lead Junior Youth (Cheong-nyun) Entrepreneurs. The COVID-19 outbreak has fostered the demand for non-face-to-face or untact services. The primary purpose of this competition is to discover breakthrough startup ideas in an effort to boost non-face-to-face industries, related to medical services.
Since August 2020, the competition begain recruiting participants in the following non-face-to-face service sectors: ▲ Smart Healthcare ▲ Online Education ▲ Smart Business & Finance ▲ Entertainment ▲ Consumption in Living ▲ Logistics Distribution. A total of 738 teams partook in the competition, yet only 4 teams were qualified for the final pitching. The final results were announced on November 19, 2020.
Among many outstanding ones, Thyroscope Inc. was the top-rated team in the smart healthcare sector. The company was particularly praised for introducing the Smart Care System for Thyroid Dysfunction, also known as Glandy.
This mobile application for thyroid dysfunction is capable of predicting the thyroid hormone level based on heart rate data collected from wearables. It helps patients to take care of their thyroid condition through the verified checklists and other self-management tools.
Thyroscopen Inc. has won an award of excellence at the 2020 South-East Korea Megacity Startup Idea Competition. l Image Credit: Thyroscope Inc.
Established in April 2020, Thyroscope Inc. has been recognized for its high business value from various startup support programs and competitions.
The company has attracted seed investment from IPS Ventures Inc. and Wide & Partners Inc. Besides, the company has been selected for the Early Startup Package Business by Korea Institute of Startup and Entrepreneurship Development (KISED), as well as the Start-up Nest Program by Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT)). Besides, it has won an award of excellence at both the 2020 South-East Korea Megacity Startup Idea Competition and at the 2020 Digital Health Hackathon.
In November 2020, Thyroscope Inc. has announced the beta-version release of Glandy, and has thus recently initiated pilot testing with the aim of officially releasing it next year. The company has also been selected for the Ulsan Genome Service with Regulation Free and for the Korea Medical Device Development Fund Project.
