Two Programs, Two Journeys at Venture Café Cambridge

slon ar

18 hours ago

5 min read

2026년 10월 16일

Tonight at Venture Café Cambridge, a conversation about CIC's Social Impact Program offered a closer look at its continued growth. Later, six Korean med-tech and biotech startups took the stage for their final pitches through CIC Catalyst's Global expansion program.

Two separate CIC initiatives, each with its own story.

CIC's Social Impact Program: Growing into Its Fourth Year

I spent some time with Colleen Kwedor, Senior Program Manager of the Massachusetts Social Impact Program at CIC (Cambridge Innovation Center), and also joined discussions with Katelyn McCoy and Michelle Wu.

Colleen shared how the program has grown over successive cohorts, with its fourth year approaching. We also touched on the differences between early-stage and growth-stage founders, their needs, and the different ways they demonstrate their progress.

The program is industry-agnostic, supporting Massachusetts entrepreneurs from historically underserved backgrounds at different stages of business development. Beyond the individual companies, it was exciting to see how the program itself has grown and how many more entrepreneurs it is reaching.

Applications for the 2027 Growth Stage Cohort are open until October 23. More information is available on CIC's official program page.

From Seoul to Boston: Six Biohealth Startups with CIC Catalyst

At the Korean biohealth pitch session, Zachary Metz moderated the final presentations of six startups participating in the Seoul Startup Boston Biohealth Global Expansion Program, operated by CIC Catalyst and sponsored by the SBA Seoul Business Agency.

A representative of the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Boston offers opening greetings ahead of the six Korean startup pitches.

A representative of the Seoul Business Agency (SBA), the program sponsor, thanks CIC for supporting Korean startups entering the U.S. market and connecting with Boston's innovation ecosystem.

I also spoke with Zack about CIC Catalyst's recent evolution. He explained how teams previously working on external innovation, including the Japan Desk, have come together under a broader international focus. Their goal is to help international startups connect with local innovation ecosystems and explore opportunities in Boston and beyond.

The six companies presented technologies ranging from cardiovascular screening to computational drug discovery, along with the opportunities they hope to pursue in the U.S.:

ARSLON — Sook Yang, CSO: Uses AI to analyze routine ECG data and assess coronary artery disease risk, helping doctors identify patients who may need further cardiac testing. Seeking U.S. clinical and research partners, regulatory support, and strategic investors.

Beyond Medicine — Narae Lee, COO: Develops Clickless, a six-week prescription digital therapeutic for temporomandibular disorders (TMD), combining jaw exercises, behavioral therapy, and clinician monitoring. Seeking clinical, regulatory, and commercialization partners while raising $5 million for international trials and expansion.

CrystarVision — Kanggeon Lee, CTO: Its Reticare system uses AI to screen retinal images for conditions including diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration. Seeking U.S. clinical partners, primary care networks, and camera manufacturers.

HUINNO / MEMO — Steven Baek, Head of North America: Develops wearable patient-monitoring technology that identifies signs of clinical deterioration and helps hospitals assess discharge readiness, with continued monitoring at home. Seeking U.S. hospital pilot partners and distribution relationships.

StellarCube — Sangmyung (Eric) Hong: Developing PainCube, an AI system that uses biosignals to measure and predict pain, including for patients unable to communicate. Seeking investment and clinical or business partnerships to advance validation and commercialization.

Tinaclon — Insung Na, Founder & CEO: Develops target-specific AI models for computational drug discovery through its TRION Cloud platform. Rather than making an investment pitch, Na invited researchers to try the company's technology and explore its applications.

Detailed Company Descriptions and Contacts

For readers interested in exploring these technologies further or connecting with the teams, below are the company descriptions and professional contacts reproduced from the official two-page Seoul Startup Boston Biohealth Global Expansion Program flyer.

The flyer lists company representatives and contacts, while Venture Café's official session page lists featured speakers and provides additional profile references. These are not necessarily the same individuals, and not every person listed in the materials delivered a pitch.

1. ARSLON

Sook Yang — CSO sook@arslon.kr

Arslon Inc. (https://www.arslon.kr/en) is a medical AI company specialized in developing AI-powered solutions for early screening and risk assessment of coronary artery disease (CAD) using standard 12-lead ECG data. Arslon's proprietary technology combines deep learning and Graph Neural Network (GNN)-based analysis to assess coronary artery stenosis and myocardial ischemia, including ECG-derived FFR (eFFR), from a routine 10-second ECG without radiation, contrast agents, or invasive procedures. The technology is designed around established clinical thresholds of ≥70% coronary stenosis and FFR ≤0.80. Arslon aims to support earlier identification of patients who may benefit from further cardiac evaluation and is seeking clinical, research, and business partnerships in the U.S.

2. Beyond Medicine

Narae Lee — COO nr1322@beyondmedicine.kr

Beyondmedicine (https://beyondmedicine.kr) is a digital health company developing Clickless, a prescription digital therapeutic and Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) for temporomandibular disorders (TMD). Clickless delivers a structured six-week treatment program combining therapeutic jaw exercises, behavioral modification, relaxation techniques, patient education, and symptom tracking, while allowing clinicians to monitor patient progress through a dedicated dashboard. The solution has received Class II medical device approval from the Korean Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) and has demonstrated significant pain reduction and functional improvement in a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled clinical trial. Beyondmedicine is currently commercializing Clickless through dental clinics in Korea and is preparing for global expansion, including U.S. FDA, European MDR, and Japanese regulatory pathways. The company is seeking clinical, regulatory, distribution, and commercialization partners to support market entry and scale-up in international dental and digital health markets.

3. CrystarVision

Su Jeong Song — CEO sjsong7@gmail.com

Kanggeon Lee — CTO ironman@crystarvision.co.kr

CrystarVision is a Korean medical-AI company developing Reticare, an autonomous AI agent for fundus (retinal) screening that detects the three leading causes of blindness, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and age-related macular degeneration.

Unlike single-disease image readers, Reticare automates the entire workflow from image capture to reading to reporting, functioning as a "digital ophthalmologist" rather than a simple analysis tool.

In Korea, we supply our fundus camera and AI software to hospital health-screening centers, ophthalmology clinics, and regional public hospitals without an on-site ophthalmologist.

We are now preparing to enter the US market, where autonomous-AI reading is reimbursed under CPT code 92229.

4. MEMO

Steven Baek — Head of North America steven@huinno.com

Yeongjoon Gil — CEO kyzoon@huinno.com

MEMO by HUINNO (huinno.com) is an affordable, lightweight wearable patient monitor for non-ICU beds, with built-in AI that continuously monitors patient vitals. Unlike conventional telemetry that buries nurses in alarms, MEMO filters noise to reduce alarm fatigue, alerts only when it detects early signs of clinical deterioration, and provides a Discharge Score that helps hospitals safely shorten average length of stay and improve bed throughput. The same device stays on the patient and continues monitoring at home after discharge, extending oversight across the inpatient-to-outpatient transition to reduce readmissions. MEMO Care is already used in over 65% of Korea's tertiary hospitals, and HUINNO's full product line, including its AI CDSS, is MFDS-cleared. Backed by Johnson & Johnson and Yuhan, the company is seeking U.S. clinical pilot partners and distribution relationships.

5. StellarCube

Kevin Kim — CFO Kevin@stellarcube.co.kr

Eric Hong — Assistant Manager eric@stellarcube.co.kr

StellarCube is a medical software company developing PainCube to transform pain management from guesswork to prediction.

PainCube predicts pain before onset and scores it on an objective 0–10 scale.

Through our partnerships with Johns Hopkins University and Korea University, we train

PainCube on over 50,000 pain-labelled biosignal records.

PainCube enables earlier pain relief and optimized opioid dosing for patients, while helping hospitals cut pain management costs and prevent opioid misuse.

6. Tinaclon

Insung Na — Founder & CEO insungna@tinaclon.com

Tinaclon's mission is to make drug discovery fast, easy, and truly effective.

Where general foundation models plateau on precision, our target-specialized modeling is tuned to each target protein, the major actor. We provide TSAP (Target Specific Activity Prediction) service to generate high-confidence molecules. With TRION Cloud (http://trion.cloud), researchers can accelerate their drug discovery projects. At Tinaclon, we're building the precision engine for faster, easier, and more effective therapeutic discovery.