Nunaps, a South Korean digital therapeutics startup, has closed a KRW 5 billion (US$ 4.2 million) Series A round by Company K Partners, KTB Network, and K2 Investment Partners.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to build digital therapeutics platform related to neurological disorders. Nunaps has recently initiated a pivotal clinical trial of its first product, Nunap Vision, which provides visual perceptual training to treat visual field defects caused by brain damage. It is the first digital therapeutics trial approved by MFDS (formerly known as KFDA) in South Korea.

Nunap Vision is a SaMD (Software as a Medical Device) utilizing HMD VR. While its clinical efficacy has already been demonstrated in previous proof-of-concept studies, Nunaps designed the pivotal clinical trial to be multi-center, double-blind, randomized, and placebo-controlled for further validation.

Nunaps takes pride in its in-house convergence medical and tech professionals comprised of neurologists, software and game/VR developers, engineers, AI scientists, perceptual psychologists, and mathematicians. Three neurologists are fully committed to investigate and develop its pipelines: Dong-Wha Kang, founder and CEO, MD, PhD, Professor of Neurology and Head of R&BD Group at Asan Medical Center; Hyun-Wook Nah, MD, PhD, former Professor of Neurology at Dong-A University Hospital; Hana Kim, MD, PhD, former clinical fellow in Neurology (Division of Dementia) at Asan Medical Center.

Kang said that he decided to go into business in 2017 to develop a new therapy having clinical and practical applications for patients who suffer from visual field defects. "They have had no effective treatment until now," he said. "In our efforts to treat patients with unmet needs, we naturally came up with digital."

Kang-Soo Lee, CIO of Company K Partners, commented, "Nunaps is Korea's first digital therapeutics company and has great potential to become a global top-tier, setting up clinical trials for new digital therapeutics that employs AI technologies to address neurological disorders."

The startup plans to develop pipelines for various brain disorders to become a leading digital therapeutics platform company in the next few years. The CEO emphasized that, "It is vital to carry out patient-centered R&D for the developed products to be put into practical use." He added, "We will develop super-customized digital therapeutics so that patients may directly experience our products and be empowered to engage in our development."