This Month's TIPS: Testifai, Beelinker, ElbioScience, Abom AI, YejiX, J&P Medi

The Ministry of SMEs and Startups oversees TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startup), a private investment-led technology startup support program that identifies and supports high-growth potential startups through collaboration with government and private investors. Selected companies receive a technical validation evaluation. Recently, many startups have been chosen for this program over the past month (based on external disclosure). Testify AI-based software quality assurance (QA) solution company Testify has secured seed investment and been selected for the government R&D support program. Testify was chosen for TIPS on the recommendation of the Gyeonggi Creative Economy Innovation Center. Previously, Testify had secured a seed investment of 100 million won from the same center. With this selection, Testify will receive up to 500 million won in R&D and commercialization funding over the next two years. Founded in October 2024, Testify recorded annual sales of 3.1 billion won within just one year of establishment. Their flagship product is the AI automation QA solution ‘VeriGEN’. According to the company, VeriGEN automatically generates test cases through an AI engine trained on over 150,000 pieces of real-world data, thus reducing test speeds and costs compared to the existing manpower-centered methods. Currently, IT companies like NTS and SOCAR are already using this solution. Testify plans to invest the secured funds into enhancing the solution, refining the test case generation technology to increase market share in the domestic B2B on-premises sector, and pushing for global market entry through AWS Marketplace by 2028. CEO Jung Won-young stated, “With this investment and the TIPS selection, we aim to strengthen our R&D capabilities and establish a technological foundation for global market entry.” Belinker Belinker, which operates the fabless automation component contract manufacturing solution ‘Belinker Manufacturing’ and the AI-based manufacturing blueprint management solution ‘Belinker Cloud,’ has been selected for the global TIPS program. The Global TIPS program is a government initiative that systematically supports promising startups that attract investments from overseas venture capital to establish overseas corporations and enter global markets. Companies are selected based on a comprehensive evaluation of their technology, business applicability, and global expansion potential, and only those that have raised more than $200,000 from overseas investors are eligible for support. Last year, about 120 companies applied, with only 20 being ultimately selected, indicating a high level of competition. Prior to this global TIPS selection, Belinker attracted investment from the U.S. venture capital firm Strong Ventures, recognizing its global business capabilities and growth potential, and was selected for this global TIPS through the recommendation of that investor. As a result of this selection, Belinker will receive up to 600 million won in overseas expansion funding over the next three years, along with various supports for establishing overseas corporations, local commercialization, and global partnership building. Currently, Belinker is continuously expanding its export achievements of processed goods, particularly focusing on the North American market through its fabless-based automated component contract manufacturing network. They have already completed initial shipments and are continuing negotiations for subsequent exports based on these deliveries. With this global TIPS selection, they plan to establish an overseas subsidiary in North America and expand new sales based on local presence to further strengthen overseas revenues. CEO Ahn Jae-min remarked, “The additional selection for global TIPS, following the TIPS R&D project selection, is a testament to Belinker's manufacturing data technological prowess and global business competitiveness,” adding, “We will continue to demonstrate the value of Korean manufacturing technology and data-driven solutions in the overseas manufacturing market.” ElbioScience Bioventure company ElbioScience has been selected for TIPS. ElbioScience was chosen through investment and recommendation from its operator, Genexis, and will work on the technology validation and advancement of its ‘Liquid Crystal-based Long-Acting Injection Formulation Platform’ over the next two years. The core technology of this project, ‘long-acting injection drugs’, is designed to gradually release the drug in the body, thereby extending the dosing interval. ElbioScience is researching a platform to control drug release rates using formulation characteristics that form liquid crystal structures after administration into the body. The company plans to focus on improving the complexity of manufacturing processes, initial burst issues, and aseptic processing challenges inherent in existing solid suspension or implantable injections. Specifically, they will validate the structural characteristics of the formulation, secure manufacturing process compatibility, and evaluate drug release characteristics and stability. During the TIPS period, ElbioScience aims to standardize the platform technology and secure basic data through non-clinical evaluations. Rather than verifying the efficacy of specific drugs, the goal is to establish the versatility and reproducibility of formulation technology applicable to various components. Moving forward, they plan to prepare regulatory documentation and explore possibilities for technology transfer (L/O) or co-development with pharmaceutical companies. A representative from Genexis stated, “ElbioScience is a company attempting a formulation technology-centered approach,” adding, “We plan to support business strategies and regulatory reviews needed in the R&D process.” EbomAI Medical AI startup EbomAI has been selected for the TIPS Deep Tech track and will receive 1.5 billion won in technology development (R&D) funding over the next three years. Founded in early 2022, EbomAI comprises personnel who have worked on AI development, clinical research, and regulatory affairs at firms such as Lunit. Earlier, they secured initial seed investment from the accelerator, Greem Ventures, in September 2025. The selected deep tech TIPS project focuses on developing AI technology for diagnosing and predicting heart diseases. The goal is to reduce interpretation variability of data that may occur during existing ECG and echocardiogram procedures and to enhance reading accuracy. To achieve this, EbomAI plans to build a large-scale ECG-echocardiogram linked dataset and apply its proprietary explainable AI (XAI) framework. They are specifically developing a solution to predict the risk of severe heart disease occurrences through the fusion analysis of the two examination data using ‘multimodal AI’ technology. CEO Nam Hyun-seok stated, “With the secured government support funds, we will focus on commercializing heart disease specialized AI solutions.” Nam Hong-kyu, representative of Greem Ventures, indicated, “We decided to invest after assessing the team’s potential for growth in the medical AI sector and will continue to provide support.” YejiX Medical AI startup YejiX has been selected for the TIPS global track on the recommendation of Kakao Ventures. YejiX has been highly evaluated for the growth potential of its core pipeline, the ‘Predictive Algorithm for Re-hospitalization Risk of Heart Failure Patients,’ in the U.S. market. Based on multimodal AI technology that integrates electronic health records (EHR) and medical images, their technology aims to not only enable early disease diagnosis but also accurately predict the worsening of patients’ conditions or risk of re-hospitalization post-discharge. YejiX’s technology has been recognized as a starting point for a ‘Continuum of Care’ system that extends from hospital treatment to home and community post-discharge. This aligns with the needs of the U.S. healthcare market, which seeks to reduce re-hospitalization rates and cut healthcare costs. Recently, YejiX strengthened its R&D capabilities by recruiting Professor Choi Yun-jae from KAIST, who previously worked in Google Health Research, as a scientific advisory member. CEO Jeong Sung-hyun mentioned, “YejiX’s vision is to become an infrastructure layer that not only provides a heart failure re-hospitalization prediction solution but also enables financial improvement and operational efficiency in hospitals,” adding, “We aim to grow into a company that leads the field of re-hospitalization risk prediction based on the momentum from this global TIPS selection.” J&PMedi AI platform-based drug and innovative medical device development consulting firm J&PMedi has been selected for the global TIPS program. Global TIPS is a government initiative that supports promising startups that have raised over $300,000 in investments from overseas venture capital, providing commercialization funding and global expansion programs. J&PMedi has been recognized for the technical prowess of its AI-based clinical trial data platform and its potential for global expansion. J&PMedi plans to expand its business in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, focusing on its core solution ‘Maven Clinical Cloud’. This platform is a B2B SaaS-based clinical trial data management solution that incorporates AI, cloud, and blockchain technologies. It integrates electronic case report forms (eCRF), electronic protocols (eProtocol), and electronic consent forms (eConsent), digitalizing the entire clinical trial process. Its goals include automating data input and review processes to reduce researchers’ workload and decrease the time and costs associated with developing new drugs and innovative medical devices. The APAC region is evaluated as a key clinical trial strategy hub for global pharmaceutical and biotech companies due to its advantages in cost efficiency, rapid patient recruitment, and ethnic diversity. CEO Jeong Kwon-ho stated, “Through this global TIPS selection, we aim to enhance the technical completeness and scalability of Maven Clinical Cloud and expand the potential of digital technology in the global clinical trial environment, especially in the APAC region.”