Best Life Sciences Companies in Daejeon, South Korea
The 58 best Life Sciences companies in Daejeon, South Korea in 2026, ranked by funding and momentum. Funding, investors, founders, valuation, tech stack and live signals. Top: Orum Therapeutics.
Our analysis of 50 Life Sciences companies
$4.0b in tracked funding; 40% of the stack-profiled cohort runs cloud-native; funding activity peaked in 2025.
Ranked: Best Life Sciences companies in Daejeon
| # | Company | Disclosed funding | Last round | Stage | Founder | Founded | Tech stack | Patents & IP focus | Recent signals |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Orum Therapeutics Developer of cell-penetrating antibodies as oncology therapeutics 55Funding top 19%Patents top 23%Moat top 26%Innovation top 35% All 10 signals ▾Fundingtop 19% Patentstop 23% Moattop 26% Innovationtop 35% Talenttop 41% Growthtop 47% Globalbottom 47% Marketbottom 44% Techbottom 42% Newsbottom 41% Funding: Raised $92.0M across 4 rounds · 4 rounds over 9 yrs (0.4/yr) Patents: 121 patents matched (strict assignee match) · 66 filings since 2022 vs 53 in 2017-21 rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 55/100 | $92M | 6 mo ago | Public | Sj Lee CEO | 2016 | Cart FunctionalitySquarespace CommerceSquarespace+14 | 121 patents Targeted antibody‑drug conjugates and neodegrader therapeutics for CD123 and T‑cell activation | 1 job opening |
| 2 | LegoChem Biosciences Developer of small molecule drugs | $11M | 118 mo ago | Acquired | Sejin Park Co-Founder & CFO | 2006 | — | 349 patents Targeted antibody-drug conjugates and linker‑payload chemistries for oncology therapeutics. | — |
| 3 | SCBIO Developer of small molecule immuno-oncology drugs 27Funding top 42%Moat top 45%Patents top 50%Talent bottom 45% All 7 signals ▾Fundingtop 42% Moattop 45% Patentstop 50% Talentbottom 45% Innovationbottom 38% Marketbottom 37% Globalbottom 31% Funding: Raised $10.1M across 1 rounds · 1 rounds over 4 yrs (0.2/yr) Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 4/10 · IP moat: 4 patents rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 27/100 | $10M | 10 mo ago | Series B | Chang Lee CEO | 2021 | — | 4 patents Livestock feed additives reducing methane emissions and HDAC6 enzyme inhibitors for therapeutics | — |
| 4 | Y-Biologics Developer of antibodies for the treatment of multiple diseases 37Patents top 24%Moat top 35%Innovation top 36%Funding top 40% All 8 signals ▾Patentstop 24% Moattop 35% Innovationtop 36% Fundingtop 40% Marketbottom 44% Fin. healthbottom 39% Globalbottom 37% Techbottom 35% Patents: 166 patents matched (strict assignee match) · 85 filings since 2022 vs 81 in 2017-21 Moat: Editorial + unicorn rating 4/10 · IP moat: 166 patents rank vs industry peers · Fliar Intelligence Index 37/100 | $9M | 11 mo ago | Public | — | 2007 | Framer SitesReactPriority Hints+4 | 166 patents Therapeutic antibodies and ADCs targeting cancer antigens and immune checkpoints | — |
| 5 | PharmAbcine Developer of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases | $6M | 169 mo ago | Public | — | 2008 | ImwebFroala EditorYouTube+18 | 149 patents Therapeutic antibodies and fusion proteins targeting VEGFR2 and Tie2 for angiogenesis inhibition | — |
| 6 | Panagene Provider of peptide nucleic acid products for diagnostic and therapeutic use | $5M | 115 mo ago | Public | Sung Kee Kim President & CEO | 2001 | — | 170 patents Patents concentrated in chemistry & materials | 1 launch |
| 7 | Ingenium Therapeutics Developer of anti-cancer immunotherapy treatments | $4M | 31 mo ago | Series A | Sangyong Kim Co-Founder | 2020 | — | 5 patents NK cell activation agents for immunotherapy | — |
| 8 | ACTNOVA AI vision-based behavior test platform provider | $2M | 29 mo ago | Seed | Daesoo Kim Founder | 2020 | — | 5 patents Real-time animal behavior monitoring and video analytics using computer vision and streaming technologies | — |
| 9 | Tomocube Holographic microtomography for cellular microscopy | $2M | 123 mo ago | Public | — | 2015 | PHPGSAPLiteSpeed+12 | 86 patents AI‑enhanced 3D quantitative phase and refractive‑index tomography for high‑resolution imaging | 1 launch · 1 expansion |
Top 12 Life Sciences companies in Daejeon
#1
Public · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2016 · 38 employees$92Mraised▾
Developer of cell-penetrating antibodies as oncology therapeutics. It has a proprietary cell-penetrating antibody technology and is developing monoclonal antibodies to directly target the activated form of RAS. The cell-penetrating technology develops antibodies that can access the cytosol of living cells following receptor-mediated endocytosis. RAS proteins function to transmit signals within cells that control cell growth, differentiation, and survival. The product pipeline includes ORM-5029, ORM-6151, and ANDC-0001 for solid tumors and hematological cancers
- Dec 2025Post IPO$100M
- Jun 2021Series B$54M
- Jul 2019Series B$30M
- Jun 2017Series A$8M
#2
Series B · Yuseong, Daejeon · founded 2021 · 23 employees$10.1Mraised▾
Developer of small molecule immuno-oncology drugs. The company's lead compounds include 'SCB001' and 'SCB002', which are small-molecular compounds that regulate the activity of immune cells in tumors. It develops a pipeline for NSCLC, Pancreatic cancer, and more.
- Sep 2025Series B$10.1M
- 2023Series A—
- 2022Seed—
#3
Public · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2007 · 57 employees$9Mraised▾
Developer of antibodies for the treatment of multiple diseases. It has designed a proprietary technology to develop the antibody for therapeutic application. The company has secured a set of cDNA libraries and a set of receptor libraries for the selection of the antibody and new target discovery and evaluation. It has also developed a proprietary transient HEK293 system for transfection and protein production. Additionally, the company offers several antibody-related services.
- Aug 2025Post IPO$25.2M
- Nov 2018Series C$33.1M
- Apr 2016Series A$9M
#4
Series A · Yuseong, Daejeon · founded 2020 · 14 employees$4.1Mraised▾
Developer of anti-cancer immunotherapy treatments. The company uses NK cell production technology and memory NK cell therapy platform to produce therapeutics for relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia and various solid cancers.
- Nov 2023Series A$4.1M
#5
Seed · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2020 · 7 employees$2.5Mraised▾
AI vision-based behavior test platform provider. It offers a web application to analyze videos. It leverages AI and machine learning to identify and visualize behaviors. Users can import video files by drag and drop and experiment with conventional behavioral apparatuses or customize.
- Feb 2024Seed$2.5M
#6
Acquired · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2006 · 135 employees$11Mraised▾
LegoChem Biosciences, Inc. (LCB) is a research-based biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines by leveraging our chemistry expertise to make conventional biologics more targeted and potent for the benefit of patients with diseases of highly unmet medical needs. We are advancing sustainable pipelines in therapeutic areas within antibiotics, anti-coagulants, oncology, antibody-drug conjugate (ADC), and protein-drug conjugate (PDC).
#7
Public · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2008 · 48 employees$6.3Mraised▾
Developer of monoclonal antibodies for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases. It offers proprietary phage-based human IgG library for the discovery of novel therapeutics. It is developing a variety of mAbs against various cancer-related target proteins and especially TTAC0001, a lead mAb against VEGFR-2(KDR), is now studying in the preclinical stage. TTAC-0001 is a kind of anti-angiogenic antibody therapeutics neutralizing the VEGF/VEGFR2 signal transduction that inhibits tumor growth and metastasis.
- Jun 2012Series B$335.2K
- Sep 2009Series A$6M
#8
Public · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2001 · 71 employees$5.3Mraised▾
Provider of peptide nucleic acid products for diagnostic and therapeutic use. The company has developed various innovative platform technologies on molecular diagnostics covering multiplexing, mutated gene specific amplification, SNP discrimination and so on. It offers cancer-related molecular diagnostics including companion diagnostics using tissue or liquid biopsy specimens.
- Nov 2016Post IPO$5.3M
#9
Public · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2015 · 46 employees$2Mraised▾
Tomocube produces the Tomocell HT-1, which is a high-speed, microscope designed to let researchers view live cells using holographic microtomography technology. TomoCell HT-1 delivers non-invasive, real-time quantitative data, such as cell volume, shapes of sub-cellular organelles, cytoplasmic density, surface area, and deformability with high resolutions. The technology has applications in research as well as in medical diagnostics.
- Apr 2016Series A$2M
#10
Seed · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2012—raised▾
Developer of microbiome therapeutics for the treatment of various diseases. The company is developing high-functioning probiotics which include HAC01 for glycemic control functional probiotics, ATG-K2 for body fat reduction & vaginitis treatment functional probiotics, ATG-K8 for vaginitis treatment, and more.
- Sep 2022Seed—
#11
Seed · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2019 · 22 employees—raised▾
Provider of AI-focused drug discovery research platform. It offers an AI-enhanced Systems Biology-based prediction platform for mathematical modeling, computer simulation, and biological insights for drug development.
- Mar 2019Seed—
#12
Seed · Daejeon, Daejeon · founded 2014—raised▾
Plasmapp develops plasma technology products. The company has developed low temperature plasma sterilizer (STERLINK, STERPACK, STERLOAD) for packaging pouches for sterilization at a low temperature of 55ºC and atmospheric pressure plasma source (LJPS-SF and LJPS-DF) which does not degrade the plamsa.
- 2017Seed—
Funding & investor landscape
Notable founders
Market landscape — 10 sub-themes by coverage
Share of Life Sciences coverage by sub-theme.
Regulatory-risk over time rising
Funding & growth over time
funding rising · growth rising
How research on Biotechnology is moving in South Korea
A read on the academic research around Biotechnology — which themes are gaining ground, the institutions and researchers driving them, and how the tone is shifting. Based on 885 South Korea-affiliated papers.
- Ministry of Agriculture118
- Ministry of Education70
- Seoul National University53
- Yonsei University44
- Korea University36
- Gene2→26
- Genome1→10
- Transcription factor1→9
- Genome editing1→6
- Transformation (genetics)1→6
- Antimicrobial1→23
- Apoptosis1→12
- Cell culture2→10
- Cytotoxicity2→8
- Gene knockdown1→7
- Human health2→11
- Health benefits1→6
- Antibiotic resistance1→4
- Toxicity2→4
Where biotechnology 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 biotechnology patents in South Korea
South Korea biotechnology patent filing is accelerating — 58,964 filings from 8,000 assignees (2016–2025), led by CJ Cheiljedang, UNIV Korea RES & BUS Found, Samsung; annual filings 4052→6791.
- CJ Cheiljedang6610
- UNIV Korea RES & BUS Found1920
- Samsung1764
- Korea Advanced INST SCI & TECH1761
- Seoul NAT UNIV R&DB Foundation1752
- Korea RES INST Of Bioscience1538
- Hanmi Pharm IND1198
- Korea RES INST Bioscience & Biot1009
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.