In March, the healthcare AI startups AIRS Medical and artiQ officially merged under the name AIRS Medical Inc. United by a shared vision of creating a world without sickness, AIRS Medical and artiQ have now become a stronger, unified team through this merger.

A World Without Sickness

AIRS Medical’s vision is embodied in “SwiftMR,” its MRI acceleration solution that dramatically reduces MRI scan times.
Founded by a team of co-founders from Seoul National University’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and School of Medicine, the company focused intensively on R&D and, within just two years, won first place globally in Facebook’s 2020 FastMRI Challenge. In 2021, AIRS Medical obtained FDA clearance in the United States, demonstrating its exceptional technological capabilities.

Wellness as Everyone’s Life

artiQ aims to make quality healthcare accessible to everyone by combining AI, robotics, and medical technology.
Founded by graduates of Seoul National University’s School of Medicine and researchers with experience at KAIST and Samsung Electronics, artiQ’s automated venipuncture solution enhances procedural success rates while achieving a zero learning curve, addressing inefficiencies in medical workflows and paving the way for significant clinical impact.

Both companies have built deep trust and a longstanding relationship with Klim Ventures — in fact, they were the first and second companies in which Klim Ventures invested. We sat down with Hyeseong Lee (CEO of AIRS Medical), Jingu Lee (Chairman of AIRS Medical), and Honggyu Nam (CEO of Klim Ventures) to discuss the story behind the merger and the future ahead.

(from left: Honggyu Nam, Hyeseong Lee, and Jingu Lee )

| Driving Healthcare Innovation with AI, Robotics, and Medical Technology

Junghun Won, Partner at Klim Ventures (Moderator): What led you to decide on a merger?

Jingu Lee, Chairman of AIRS Medical: The biggest motivation was to bring together the best talents who share the same dream. The two teams have known each other well since the early days and consistently discussed the world we want to create. Both have attracted top-tier talent in engineering and medicine. As each team reached critical milestones — one entering commercialization with MRI acceleration and the other completing development of venipuncture automation — we began discussing our next projects. That’s when we realized how much more we could achieve together. Both teams are decisive and fast-moving when pursuing the right path, which acted as a strong catalyst for the merger.

Hyeseong Lee, CEO of AIRS Medical: Both companies shared not only the same vision but also the same approach to achieving it. Long before the merger, AIRS Medical and artiQ dreamed of a world without sickness. To realize that, we focused on developing diagnostic testing solutions that hospitals truly need and that also enhance patient experience. Our belief is that solutions improving hospital productivity should simultaneously improve patient satisfaction and ultimately transform the cost structure of diagnostic testing. As diagnostics become more widespread, vast amounts of data can enable a shift toward preventive, data-driven healthcare through early detection and prediction.

Moderator: What kind of synergies do you expect from the merger?

Jingu: The merger allows us to define our customers broadly — both patients and hospitals — and to internalize all the core technologies required for healthcare innovation, from deep-learning imaging to robotics.
Each company’s solution had been addressing major challenges in two key diagnostic fields — imaging diagnostics and in-vitro diagnostics. SwiftMR improves MRI throughput and patient comfort, while the robotic venipuncture system automates one of the most common yet labor-intensive hospital procedures, reducing patient pain and improving workflow efficiency.
These accumulated technologies will serve as a foundation for future innovations in the diagnostic process.

Hyeseong: Since the two products target the same customers without overlapping markets, we can expect synergies throughout the entire commercialization cycle — from R&D to sales.
Our past experience obtaining FDA approval within just three years of founding demonstrates our ability to bring novel medical devices to market on schedule. This credibility helps us strengthen sales channels and cross-sell across product lines. Most importantly, world-class AI and medical experts are now collaborating under one roof, driving innovation through open discussion.

| Exceptional Talent as the Core

Moderator: The density of top talent stands out.

Hyeseong: Talent density at AIRS Medical is among the highest in the world — and we intend to keep it that way. I believe the best benefit at work is having the best colleagues. Great people push each other to grow, and that creates true synergy. With top talent, we don’t need to waste energy on unnecessary distrust — we can focus on creating a free, open culture where people do their best work. That efficiency naturally translates into company growth and customer value.

Jingu: Indeed, our extraordinary talent density defines AIRS Medical. In healthcare, where we deal with human lives, building technology that can be fully trusted is our top priority. Many of our team members left prestigious careers because they were deeply inspired by our mission. The synergy among these exceptional individuals — learning from each other and pursuing a dream that the world supports — is what sustains AIRS Medical’s unique identity.

Moderator: What changes have you noticed since the merger?

Hyeseong: A merger can often be a major shock to an organization, yet we experienced no member turnover. I believe that’s because everyone truly shares and believes in our common vision. You can feel the collective commitment to continuous improvement and positive change. That’s why I’m confident that, moving forward, we’ll be able to fill in any gaps together and continue to grow as one team.

Jingu: As I mentioned earlier, our long history of communication, combined with similar levels of talent density and growth backgrounds, allowed this merger to be one of the most seamless integrations I’ve seen. The organization’s strong support for the merger was also crucial — built on individual confidence in one’s own capabilities, clear understanding of roles, and a positive mindset toward embracing change.
While mergers or restructurings often risk talent loss, in our case it became a foundation for attracting even more talent. Since the merger, our recruitment activities have been even more active than before.

Moderator: Do you have any specific plans related to the merger going forward?

Hyeseong: Our goal is to clarify the merged company’s value and integrate it into our culture and systems within the second quarter. In the third quarter, we’ll also unify our physical workspace, which I believe will further solidify a trust-based, cohesive culture and institutional foundation for the new AIRS Medical.

| Toward a “Must-Have” Product for the Market

Moderator: What inspired the development of the MRI acceleration and automated venipuncture solutions?

Jingu: Many of AIRS Medical’s co-founders experienced the inconvenience of long MRI wait times and fatigue due to family illnesses. This isn’t just our issue—claustrophobic patients, children, and the elderly face limited access to scans, and economically, low MRI scan throughput is a major bottleneck. AIRS Medical’s core technology, which won Facebook’s global challenge two years in a row and secured FDA and KFDA approvals within a year, powers SwiftMR, a SaaS solution rapidly deployed in healthcare settings. Customers view SwiftMR as a must-have, benefiting both patients and hospitals — achieving a remarkable conversion rate above 60%.

Hyeseong: Venipuncture — or blood collection — is one of those procedures that every clinician and patient finds challenging. Doctors, nurses, clinical pathologists, and patients alike often describe it as painful and stressful. It’s essential and extremely common, yet far from easy to perform.
Traditionally, as long as a procedure was clinically safe and effective, compromising patient comfort was considered unavoidable. That meant even when patients were pricked multiple times, bruised, or sometimes fainted, the procedure continued unchanged if venous blood collection or injection was necessary for diagnosis or treatment.
However, just as surgical robotics has redefined standards for surgery, today’s healthcare environment increasingly values the overall patient experience — including recovery time, scarring, and pain — as key criteria in decision-making. Once venipuncture automation becomes viable, the market will inevitably open up, because the demand is both universal and urgent.

The traditional apprenticeship-based training model in hospitals also faces clear limitations, which can be overcome through a combination of robotics and AI — just as the Fourth Industrial Revolution began by digitally transforming manufacturing through these very technologies.
Paradoxically, the medical field — where advanced technology is most needed — remains one of the most labor-intensive industries. Addressing this imbalance is the inevitable future of medicine. And the starting point, we believe, lies in automating one of the most common yet most difficult procedures: venipuncture.

Moderator: SwiftMR is already receiving strong response in Korea. What about global expansion?

Jingu: We’ve already captured Korea, the market with the highest scan density.
In the second half of this year, we’re preparing to enter the U.S. market, building on years of groundwork since 2019 through our presence at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) — the world’s largest radiology conference — where we have consistently showcased our technology, built sales channels, and developed client relationships.
Our key differentiator lies in the recognition we’ve earned through global innovation challenges and real-world product performance. This has positioned AIRS Medical as a company that clients want to partner with. In fact, several leading global MRI equipment manufacturers have proactively proposed joint development opportunities — and we’ve already finalized agreements with some of them.

Hyeseong: For our global expansion, we plan to target countries in order of MRI scan volume — starting with the United States, followed by Europe, Japan, Australia, Southeast Asia, and South America.
Our international business model is largely divided into two approaches: establishing local subsidiaries or signing distribution agreements. We plan to establish subsidiaries only in markets that are large in scale or where a local legal entity is required by regulation. Both subsidiaries and distributors will be responsible for managing sales channels, installation services, and customer service (CS) operations.
We have already secured FDA clearance, and are planning product and service demonstrations in the U.S. in the second half of this year. We are also in direct communication with key hospitals to discuss clinical validation studies and demo implementation. For Europe, we are proceeding with the final review stage of CE certification in the latter half of this year, and plan to conduct product and service demonstrations in Germany, Italy, and Turkey in 2023.

| Building a World Without Sickness

Moderator: What motivated you to start your own company in the first place?

Hyeseong: My background in AI, medical devices, and medicine led me to recognize issues in healthcare, many stemming from a provider-centric ecosystem. Because medicine requires deep domain expertise — much of it still analog in nature — the apprenticeship-style education system continues to dominate clinical training.

As medical service providers become increasingly scarce, it’s becoming harder to ensure consistent quality control(QC) across individuals. This slows the generational progress of medical techniques and widens the information gap between providers and patients. I believe the healthcare environment can truly change only when medical knowledge is digitally transformed — preserved and advanced without loss — and when standardized information can be shared in ways that patients can also understand and engage with.

Had I stayed in the hospital without founding a company, I would have remained part of that provider-centered structure, no matter what I did. I wanted to create a healthcare experience that genuinely reflects what patients need. That’s why, just before graduation, I decided to found AIRS Medical and step outside the hospital system.

Jingu: I came to realize that if I wanted to work with the kind of people I truly admired, I needed a vision big enough for them to believe in and share. In one research lab at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Seoul National University, there was a group of people who found fulfillment not in personal success, but in changing the world together.

Naturally, we began to see a startup as the most suitable platform — one without growth limits — where we could keep challenging ourselves and find meaning in those challenges for the rest of our lives. Early on, I also recognized that the real excitement doesn’t come from research outcomes ending up in papers, but from seeing them create tangible value in clinical practice — and ultimately being validated in the market through real revenue. That dynamic between technology, impact, and business is what truly inspired us.

| The Future of AIRS Medical

Moderator: How do you envision AIRS Medical’s future?

Hyeseong: If the healthcare field transitions from a provider-centered to a consumer-centered, data-driven, and prevention-oriented system, I believe the entire healthcare ecosystem will be transformed. At its core, the healthcare industry sells the expectation of becoming healthy. Take medication or surgery, for instance — these are decisions made in an unhealthy state, based on data showing the best available path toward recovery. The physician recommends that path and is compensated for the service, not for the guaranteed success of treatment.

When early diagnosis and predictive healthcare become routine, consumers will be able to access health-related information with expert-level understanding. That will lead to a world where diseases can be prevented before they occur, and where even if illness arises, people can return to their daily lives with minimal, low-cost treatment. AIRS Medical is building that future. And when it arrives, the healthcare market will be far larger than it is today — with AIRS Medical standing as one of the world’s leading healthcare companies.

Jingu: I believe AIRS Medical will one day be among the global Top 10 companies by market capitalization. Our vision is clear: a world without sickness. We aim to lead the creation of a new market that enables people to prevent and manage health risks throughout their entire life cycle. This represents a fundamental shift — from the traditional, rigid healthcare system focused on treating patients after disease onset, to a flexible, consumer-driven health management market. The key strategic driver for this transformation is data.

AIRS Medical stands alone in applying medical AI technology at the very point where data is generated — inside healthcare institutions themselves. Leading the standardization and digital transformation of medical data is comparable to the shift from encyclopedias to Google — redefining how information is created, shared, and utilized.
In the near future, within the data-driven healthcare ecosystem that AIRS Medical envisions, we will help liberate humanity from disease — and that is how we will grow into one of the world’s Top 10 global companies.

Honggyu Nam, CEO of Klim Ventures: Both AIRS Medical and artiQ are teams that have consistently set and achieved exceptionally high standards in research, development, and commercialization. Having worked closely with them over many years, I’ve seen their genuine passion and spirit of challenge to create meaningful, positive value for society — which is what has driven their outstanding success.

When the merger was finalized, I was confident that it would unleash explosive synergy, and I felt more excitement and pride than ever before. I can clearly envision AIRS Medical extending the benefits of its technology to more people around the world and taking on even greater challenges in the global healthcare AI market. I expect this merger to reshape the entire landscape of the medical AI industry.