Biobytes, a South Korean company specializing in AI-powered sarcopenia prediction solutions, has secured KRW 600 million (USD 450,000) in seed funding. This round was led by UK-based venture capital firm Kingsley Ventures, with additional investments from Sopoong Ventures, CNTTech, and the Gangwon Creative Economy Innovation Center.

Biobytes is a bio-healthcare company focused on diagnosing and treating sarcopenia—a condition in which muscle mass, strength, and function decline abnormally with age. Although sarcopenia diagnosis only began in South Korea in 2021, it is estimated to affect around 37% of the population. For context, common chronic conditions have prevalence rates of 11% for diabetes, 27% for hypertension, and 20% for hyperlipidemia, highlighting the significant presence of sarcopenia.

Biobytes noted that diagnostic criteria for sarcopenia vary across countries and that diagnosis often requires costly equipment. Additionally, limited data on sarcopenia has hindered research and development efforts in this field. Large global pharmaceutical companies have also struggled, with clinical trials for sarcopenia treatments repeatedly failing, leaving no effective treatment options currently available.

To address these issues, Biobytes developed solutions called “Today’s Test” and “MyoTest,” designed for easy diagnosis and management. MyoTest integrates with ‘Today’s Test’ to retrieve health check-up records, enabling a comprehensive analysis of combined data to identify high-risk sarcopenia cases and provide tailored health supplement recommendations. To further enhance its solutions, Biobytes plans to incorporate medical imaging and expand its platform to include a clinical decision support system (CDSS) for healthcare professionals.

Biobytes aims to leverage its Sarcopenia Biobank to collect and analyze blood, tissue, and clinical data, with the goal of identifying biomarkers for precise sarcopenia diagnostics and advancing drug development. By late next year, Biobytes intends to collect data from approximately 3,000 sarcopenia patients, integrating clinical and survey data to build a robust database that will support future drug development and global technology transfer strategies.

Founded in December 2023, Biobytes signed an agreement with Dr. Branding in June to supply its solutions to 20 hospitals and clinics. In August, the company also entered into a partnership with FromBio, a KOSDAQ-listed company, for the manufacture and distribution of health supplements optimized for preventing muscle loss.

Biobytes CEO Jungwoo Lee commented, “This funding will allow us to expand our team with specialized talent and focus on building a multi-institutional biobank. The more data we gather, the more accurately we can identify sarcopenia risk groups.”