Tech news picked on 2026-03-31
Why the ZENAXIS Program is an Opportunity for Deep Tech Startups Outside the Capital
- ZENAXIS has been selected as the operator of the 'Everyone's Startup Project' along with Kibo Venture Camp and has begun recruiting prospective founders and early teams.
- The condition that over 70% of the 100 teams will be selected from outside the capital region is a reason for regional teams to take a closer look.
- It would be a shame if it only extends the survival period with the funding.
- It would be good to decide in advance what technology validation results to show the next investors when the program ends.
Silicon Valley Takes Two Days, Korea Takes Weeks
- This article compares investment contracts between Korea and Silicon Valley, noting that Silicon Valley can complete contracts as quickly as within 1 to 2 days using standard agreements.
- When funds are urgent, it is easy to look only at company valuation and deposit dates.
- However, to know if the money can actually be used, one must read who needs to approve every hiring or follow-up investment.
- The periods where speed is critical in contract negotiations are both before and after signing.
Mediwhale Raises 20 Billion Won and Heads to FDA
- Mediwhale has secured 20 billion won in Series C funding.
- The investment will be used to pursue U.S. FDA approval for the cardiovascular diagnostic device Dr. NUN CVD and to expand domestic and international markets.
- This serves as a case for medical device founders to consider how early product development and regulatory preparation should be aligned when planning overseas expansion.
- If clinical data needs to be re-prepared after checking approval requirements right before launch, financial plans can also become complicated.
Evertreasure Advances to OKTA Pitch Finals
- Evertreasure has advanced to the finals of the 2026 OKTA Global AI Startup Pitch Competition with a business that combines AI and cultural finance.
- Their approach, where a small team deeply explores the financial needs of a specific customer segment, is worth noting.
- Beyond the competition results, the next question is why customers would switch from their existing services.
- To assess business viability, it's important to see whether the claim of understanding cultural context leads to repeated usage.
Naver Reinvests in Two Healthcare Companies Verified in the US
- Naver D2SF made follow-up investments in Soundable Health and NubiLab.
- The sequence of receiving additional investments after verifying product-market fit in the US draws attention.
- Healthcare teams preparing for overseas expansion should first confirm why local customers would pay costs to decide on spending for regulatory compliance and data acquisition.
- Merely planning to enter the US is insufficient to convince investors.
Law Firm and Accelerator Form a Team
- Law firm DLG and Next Elevation have signed a business agreement to support startups.
- For teams whose product launches or investment schedules are delayed due to contracts and regulations, receiving both legal and growth consulting together can be helpful.
- Since this is still at the agreement stage, actual users are more curious about whether it has been decided who will resolve conflicts between legal advice and investment recommendations.
Shortcut to Attracting US Investment: How to Use the 80 Million KRW Supported GMEP
- The Ministry of SMEs and Startups has created an investment-linked GMEP program that supports 20 AI startups with 80 million KRW and a 5-week on-site PoC in the United States.
- This is important news for teams burdened by the cost of testing their products in the US customer environment.
- For those preparing, it's essential to narrow down which customer costs to reduce locally.
- To leave results investors can see within the short proof-of-concept period, success criteria must be aligned with customers before departure.
Company Tackling Healthcare Workforce Shortages with Hiring AI
- DearExpert has launched MedInsight, an AI hiring platform targeting workforce shortages and early resignations in the healthcare sector.
- The approach of evaluating hiring success through post-employment retention is welcome.
- To understand where hospitals' and job seekers' expectations diverge, it is necessary to examine reasons for resignations.
- Securing steady post-hiring data from hospitals will be a fairly challenging task for this business.
Lessons for Founders from the LiteLLM Security Incident
- LiteLLM, which had security certification, was targeted by malware attacks aiming at credential theft.
- Even if a tool makes it easy to connect multiple models, once you entrust service operation to it, you can't simply rely on certificates alone for security.
- Early-stage teams tend to compare tools only on convenience and price, but in actual deployment, it's important to decide how far you will verify directly and under what conditions you would switch in case of an incident.
AI Infrastructure Cost Reduced by 80%: ScaleOps Raises $130 Million Investment
- ScaleOps, which automatically adjusts cloud resources, raised $130 million in its Series C round.
- The automation of engineers' repetitive resource allocation tasks is as interesting as the cost-saving figures.
- It is difficult to directly apply the claim of up to 80% savings to our service budget.
- The adoption criteria would be how much can be saved while maintaining response speed in my service.
The Real Reason Merck Established a Hub at KAIST
- Merck Life Science has established a chemistry hub at KAIST that supports everything from material design to synthesis and analysis.
- For bio startup teams burdened by equipment costs, this is an opportunity to reduce initial expenses.
- The options going forward can vary depending on who owns the data and intellectual property rights generated from joint research.
- When renting equipment, it's also advisable to confirm which assets remain with the company after the research is completed.