Best Immunology Companies in South Korea
The 39 best Immunology companies in South Korea in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Illimis Therapeutics.
- Immunology Market size is set to grow by USD 56.07 billion from 2022 t
Ranked: Best Immunology companies in South Korea
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Illimis Therapeutics Developer of antibody-based drugs to treat neurological conditions 35Funding top 28%Moat top 31%Patents top 38%Innovation top 45% All 8 signals ▾Fundingtop 28% Moattop 31% Patentstop 38% Innovationtop 45% Talentbottom 49% Globalbottom 40% Marketbottom 39% Techbottom 30% Funding: Raised $57.4M across 2 rounds · 2 rounds over 4 yrs (0.5/yr) Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 4/10 · IP moat: 24 patents rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 35/100 | $57M | 13 mo ago | Series B | Sanghoon Park Co-Founder & Ceo | 2021 | PHPApache HTTP ServerCloudflare+11 | 24 patents Engineered TAM/ERBB4 ligand biologics and fusion proteins for immunotherapy and neurodegeneration | — |
| 2 | IMBiologics Developer of antibody therapeutics to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases 40Moat top 32%Funding top 33%Patents top 36%Innovation top 45% All 6 signals ▾Moattop 32% Fundingtop 33% Patentstop 36% Innovationtop 45% Marketbottom 41% Globalbottom 40% Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 4/10 · IP moat: 23 patents Funding: Raised $33.8M across 3 rounds · 3 rounds over 5 yrs (0.6/yr) rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 40/100 | $34M | 37 mo ago | Public | — | 2020 | — | 23 patents Engineered therapeutic antibodies and fusion proteins for immuno‑oncology with extended half‑life | — |
| 3 | Shaperon Developer of therapies for multiple diseases 24Patents top 20%Innovation top 24%Funding top 29%Moat top 35% All 10 signals ▾Patentstop 20% Innovationtop 24% Fundingtop 29% Moattop 35% Newstop 39% Talentbottom 49% Globalbottom 40% Marketbottom 30% Fin. healthbottom 18% Techbottom 16% Patents: 116 patents matched (strict assignee match) · 105 filings since 2022 vs 9 in 2017-21 Innovation: 116 patents (top 24% of patent-holders) · 105 filings since 2022 vs 9 in 2017-21 rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 24/100 | $23M | 5 mo ago | Public | Seung Seong Founder & CEO | 2008 | PHPUNIXOpenSSL+7 | 116 patents Therapeutic anti‑inflammatory and antiviral agents, especially taurodeoxycholic acid formulations and bispecific antibodies. | — |
| 4 | Progen Developer of immunotherapies for immune diseases and cancer 62Growth top 5%Partners top 18%News top 19%Moat top 25% All 10 signals ▾Growthtop 5% Partnerstop 18% Newstop 19% Moattop 25% Patentstop 39% Innovationtop 48% Fundingbottom 49% Talentbottom 49% Marketbottom 48% Globalbottom 36% Partners: 5 contract events in 12 mo · Named contractor/client in 5 deals rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 62/100 | $23M | 41 mo ago | Series B | Jong Kim CEO | 2000 | — | 73 patents Engineered Fc-fusion and cytokine variant biologics for therapeutic protein development | — |
| 5 | MediMabBio Developer of immunotherapeutics for treating cancer 29Moat top 32%Funding top 35%Talent top 38%Patents top 40% All 8 signals ▾Moattop 32% Fundingtop 35% Talenttop 38% Patentstop 40% Innovationtop 42% Globalbottom 31% Marketbottom 30% Techbottom 26% Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 5/10 · IP moat: 28 patents Funding: Raised $17.8M across 1 rounds · 1 rounds over 1 yrs (1.0/yr) rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 29/100 | $18M | 10 mo ago | Series B | Hongseok Jo Co-Founder | 2017 | WordPressMySQLPHP+12 | 28 patents Immuno‑oncology checkpoint antibodies (TIGIT, GITR) and cytokine‑fusion therapeutics. | — |
| 6 | Bridge Biotherapeutics Developer of small molecule based therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases | $10M | 110 mo ago | Acquired | James Jungkue Lee Founder & CEO | 2015 | PHPNginxCloudflare+10 | 36 patents Small‑molecule autotaxin inhibitors for calcification diseases and PROTAC‑style protein degraders. | — |
| 7 | Apicell Therapeutics Developer of gene therapies for the treatment of immunological diseases | $7M | 49 mo ago | Series A | Seng-Ho Jeon CEO | 2020 | — | — | — |
| 8 | SCM Lifescience Stem cell therapeutics and related services | $5M | 94 mo ago | Public | Sun Song Founder | 2014 | PHPNginxGSAP+15 | 113 patents Patents concentrated in health & consumer products | — |
Top 9 Immunology companies in South Korea
#1
Public · Seoul, Seoul · founded 2008 · 48 employees$23.2Mraised▾
Shaperon is the developer of therapies for multiple diseases. The platform is mainly focusing on inflammatory diseases, dermatitis, nonotherapy for cancer and developing multi-targeting stable protein structure. The platform also has multiple pipeline products include Nugel for atopic dermatitis indication are in phase two clinical trials, Nusepin for sepsis indication is in phase one clinical trials, and NuCerin for Alzheimer's indication is in preclinical stage among others.
- Apr 2026Post IPO$5.8M
- Nov 2025Post IPO$17.4M
#2
Series B · Seoul, Seoul · founded 2021 · 26 employees$57.4Mraised▾
Developer of antibody-based drugs to treat neurological conditions. The company is developing a chimeric fusion protein platform to address the concerns of antibody-induced neuroinflammation and subsequent ARIA (Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities) often observed from existing antibody drugs that utilize FcR-mediated phagocytosis of microglia, by utilizing TAM receptor.
- Jul 2025Series B$42M
- Apr 2023Series A$15.4M
- 2022Seed—
#3
Series B · Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do · founded 2017 · 19 employees$17.8Mraised▾
MediMabBio is a developer of immunotherapeutics for treating cancer. The company develops immuno-oncology drugs using its drug discovery platform with a combination of systems biology and immunological solutions to target solid tumors. The products pipeline includes immune checkpoint antibody (MMB-101) in lead optimization stage and immuno cytokine agents (MMB-201) in hit optimization stage.
- Oct 2025Series B$17.8M
#4
Public · Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do · founded 2020 · 25 employees$33.8Mraised▾
Developer of antibody therapeutics to treat cancer and autoimmune diseases. The company has developed a platform technology called ePendy that can generate antibody therapeutics for the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer.
- Jul 2023Series B$15.5M
- Aug 2021Series A$14.7M
- Jan 2021Seed$3.6M
#5
Series B · Seoul, Seoul · founded 2000$22.8Mraised▾
Developer of immunotherapies for immune diseases and cancer. It offers a pipeline of drug candidates which include PG-102 for obesity, PG-208, PG-202, and others for oncology. It is based on NTIG (Neo Tri-ImmunoGlobulin) and Cyt-NTIG technology that overcomes the systemic side effects of cytokines through specific targeting.
- Apr 2023Series B$22.8M
#6
Series A · Gimhae si, South Gyeongsang Province · founded 2020 · 25 employees$7.3Mraised▾
Developer of gene therapies for the treatment of immunological diseases. The company is developing a cell gene therapy based on mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) by using Affimer platform technology to develop therapies for incurable diseases such as autoimmune diseases and transplant rejection.
- Jul 2022Series A—
- Feb 2021Series A$7.3M
#7
Acquired · Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do · founded 2015 · 6 employees$10Mraised▾
Bridge Biotherapeutics is developing small molecule-based therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases such as ulcerative colitis, fibrotic diseases, and cancers. The company's product pipeline which includes BBT-401, a pellino-1 inhibitor used against ulcerative colitis is in Phase 2 clinical trials, BBT-877, an autotaxin inhibitor used against idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is in Phase 2 clinical trials. Other products of the company are in the development stage.
- Jul 2017Series A$10M
- 2015Seed—
#8
Public · Incheon, Incheon · founded 2014 · 53 employees$4.8Mraised▾
SCM Lifescience develops stem cell therapeutics and related services. The company uses a proprietary subfractionation culturing method (SCM) to isolate mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) from adipose tissue, bone marrow and periodontal ligaments. The procedure produces MSCs that are non-immunogenic in nature, and thus can be used as universal donor cells. SCM is investigating MSC therapeutics for indications like immune-related or inflammatory diseases such as graft-versus host disease, atopic dermatitis and pancreatitis. In addition, the company also offers CMO services for stem cell production and clonal stem cell banking services.
- Oct 2018Series A$4.8M
#9
Public · Seoul, Seoul · founded 2010 · 113 employees—raised▾
Kang Stem Biotech is focussed on developing stem cell-based therapies primarily for inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. It has developed the isolation technology of cord blood-derived stem cells, the mass culturing technology of cord blood-derived stem cells and an easier and efficient technique for inducing human neural stem cells ready for the personalized medicine. Its pipeline has Furestem-AD for Atopic dermatitis (phase 1/2a completed); Furestem-RA for Rheumatoid Arthritis (phase 1completed) and Furestem-CD (ongoing phase 1/2a). It also has preclinical candidates for Osteoarthritis, Atherosclerosis and Obliterans.
- 2015Post IPO—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Immunology coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Immunology & Immunotherapy is moving in South Korea
A read on the academic research around Immunology & Immunotherapy — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 1,328 South Korea-affiliated papers.
- Ministry of Education188
- National Cancer Center137
- Asan Medical Center123
- Seoul National University96
- Samsung Medical Center86
- Immune system1→178
- Immune checkpoint2→31
- Lung cancer1→18
- Oncology1→12
- Pembrolizumab1→5
- Immune system5→255
- Cancer2→112
- Tumor microenvironment1→92
- Internal medicine3→77
- Cancer research2→71
- Immune system60
- Cancer39
- Cancer research26
- Oncology25
- Tumor microenvironment21
Where immunology is researched across South Korea
Location clusters by institution affiliation — each city's volume, stance tone, and a quick read on its hot topic, what's advancing, the opening opportunity, and the main concern.
Who's filing immunology patents in South Korea
South Korea immunology patent filing is accelerating — 699 filings from 413 assignees (2016–2025), led by Hanall Biopharma, Korea Advanced INST SCI & TECH, UNIV Yonsei IACF; annual filings 32→100.
- Hanall Biopharma47
- Korea Advanced INST SCI & TECH37
- UNIV Yonsei IACF36
- Seoul NAT UNIV R&DB Foundation26
- UNIV Korea RES & BUS Found25
- Catholic UNIV Korea IND Academic23
- Parenchyma Biotech20
- Innovo Therapeutics20
Common questions
Rohit lives in the feed. He covers what's moving right now — the funding rounds, launches and shifts breaking across the trade press — and ties them back to where the sector is heading.