THE.WAVE.TALK raises US$2M

SEOUL, South Korea, April 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- THE.WAVE.TALK, a member company of the Born2Global Centre, successfully attracted a funding of USD 2 million in early February from Yellowdog and Silicon Valley-based Big Basin Capital, bringing its accumulated total to approximately USD 6 million in funding. Existing investors include Bluepoint Partners, Naver, EstechPharma, and LB Investment (previously LG fund).

THE.WAVE.TALK, a startup that has developed its own live bacteria sensing and IoT water turbidity test technology, regards the funding as a round of bridge funding to pick up the pace on product releases and the company's expansion into the global market.

THE.WAVE.TALK CEO Kim Young-dug Kim said, "Out of this funding, we will construct a big data network that automatically measures the water quality of ordinary households through an IoT sensor. We will also dedicate even more effort to expanding this technology overseas."

Yellowdog, one of the investors in this most recent bridge funding, is an impact venture capital firm known for investing in startups that seek to resolve social problems with innovative business solutions.

Yellowdog CEO Hyun-joo Je said, "THE.WAVE.TALK's vision to be the startup that saves the most lives in the world by resolving water quality problems coincides with Yellowdog's funding philosophy. We decided to join in this funding out of our expectations that THE.WAVE.TALK can create broad-reaching social impact as it solves chronic sanitation problems experienced around the world through its unrivaled technologies."

Yellowdog was especially impressed by the potential of THE.WAVE.TALK's independently-developed technology, which will allow for speedy antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) testing at hospitals (in developing countries) with equipment that costs just several hundreds of USD.

Big Basin Capital, which also participated in the funding, is working on accelerating THE.WAVE.TALK's debut in the US market.

Phil K. Yoon, the founder and General Partner of Big Basin Capital, said, "THE.WAVE.TALK is an outstanding team that was able to sophisticate its technology and had the executive ability to commercialize it in a short period of time. It is fully capable of revolutionizing all areas, including food and pharmaceuticals, that are related to or affected by bacteria."

Currently, THE.WAVE.TALK is working with four major local governments to complete a testbed by June that utilizes an IoT sensor to automatically test the most important factor of water quality, in turbidity, in homes. The company will also be working on gaining certification from Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and Korea's Ministry of Food and Drug Safety on antibiotic inspection equipment (such as "Bacometer AI" that can diagnose urinary tract infection in under 3 hours, and AST/MIC in under 6 hours).

THE.WAVE.TALK has been a member company of the Born2Global Centre since 2018. In 2019, it received an award at Pitch@Palace and was included in the top 10 ranking at Singapore's Future Food Asia. THE.WAVE.TALK was named a CES Innovation honoree in the Home Appliances category at CES Innovation Awards 2020 for its smart IoT water sensor.

For more detailed information on THE.WAVE.TALK, visit http://thewavetalk.com/.

Media contact

Seunga Ashely Lee
Team Manager, THE.WAVE.TALK
seunga-lee@thewavetalk.com

Jina Lee
PR Manager, Born2Global Centre
jlee@born2global.com 

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