South Korea-based cancer treatment technology developer Lunit has secured $61m in funding from investors including laboratory operator NSG Biolabs, telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank and internet groups Kakao and Naver.
Legend Capital, the venture capital firm formed by conglomerate Legend Holdings, also took part in the round, as did American Cancer Society’s BrightEdge fund, IMM Investment, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, Casdin Capital, Tybourne Capital Management and HealthQuest Capital.
NSG, Kakao and SoftBank were represented by subsidiaries NSG Ventures, Kakao Ventures and SoftBank Ventures Asia while Naver invested alongside its Naver Cloud affiliate.
Lunit has created artificial intelligence-equipped cancer diagnostics tools and radiology software chest x-rays and mammograms, in addition to biomarkers which are used to analyse how patients respond to specific treatments.
The round brought the company’s overall funding to over $135m since it was founded in 2013 and the cash was secured as it prepares to launch an initial public offering on the Kosdaq market in its home country in early 2022.
Cancer treatment developer Guardant Health had provided $26m for Lunit in July this year to expand a series C round already featuring Kakao Ventures, Legend Capital and LG CNS, a vehicle for diversified conglomerate LG.
The round’s $25.7m first tranche also included Intervest, Shinhan Investment Corp and NH Investment & Securities, and it followed $15m in series B funding from Kakao Ventures, Legend Capital, Softbank Ventures Asia, telecoms firm Korea Telecom’s KT Investment unit, Mirae Asset, Intervest and Formation 8 in 2018.
SoftBank Ventures Asia and Formation 8 both took part in the series B round as existing backers, and imaging equipment producer Fujifilm is also among the company’s earlier investors.
Lunit’s CEO, Brandon Suh, said: “Our purpose of the last few investment rounds has been to find partners who would bring strategic value for our future endeavours. Through these partnerships we look forward to reinforcing our journey to conquer cancer through AI.”
