Since the bootcamp kicked off in June, the eight startups selected for CJ GLO!VentUs (Global+Venture+Us, hereafter GLO!VentUs) have barely had a moment to breathe. Co-hosted by CJ Investment and the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, this year’s program reached its closing stage after a demo session in September. But for the companies, the real work began afterward: As of December, most teams are struggling with potential customers and investors in the United States.
MEDIAIPLUS stood out as the most prominent beneficiary of this year’s CJ GLO!VentUs(Global+Venture+Us) program, thanks to its AI- and big-data-powered integrated clinical trial intelligence platform. Because clinical trials require cross-border coordination and must comply with country-specific regulations, global networks and international market experience are essential — areas where the company’s strength became particularly clear.
That validation was evident during the Immersion Week held in San Francisco last September, where MEDIAIPLUS drew significant attention from investors. Alchemist, the Silicon Valley accelerator serving as GLO!VentUs coordinator, even expressed direct investment interest — rare and powerful endorsement.
Fortune Korea conducted a written interview with CEO Jung Jihee to dive deeper into the company’s technology and global momentum.
Q. Receiving so much attention likely meant an intense schedule. How demanding was it?
We utilized every second of the day. It was an extraordinary, high-intensity experience. We communicated constantly with global business development teams and ran multiple experiments in a very short period. It was an extreme sprint — so intense that some team members questioned the sustainability of the pace. But at the same time, we understood how such an environment fuels Silicon Valley-style innovation.
Q. What was the most memorable part of the trip?
Our visit to Carta, the U.S. platform for equity and shareholder management, was unforgettable. I’d visited before, but this time — being there with Alchemist — we saw the company in its most unfiltered, ‘raw’ state. We watched firsthand how teams manage weekly sales performance, which was completely different from what we had seen in the past.
A one-hour discussion with a sales lead also gave us invaluable insights. When we explained that customer acquisition takes longer than other AI business models, the lead immediately asked, “Are you in Life Sciences?” I got chills — because it was spot-on. He told us that Life Sciences is one of the hardest B2B verticals and shared a lot of candid, practical advice. Every minute was impactful.
Q. Why do you think MEDIAIPLUS attracted so much interest?
Because of the value of the clinical trial data intelligence we’ve built over several years. Within the global ecosystem, our service is recognized as extremely compelling.
I say this with confidence. After studying pharmacy, I worked at a global pharmaceutical company, where I was fortunate to experience the entire lifecycle of a new drug — from clinical trials to approval and commercialization. The most exhausting and inefficient part was the pre-approval stage. Every day, I had to manually collect and organize dozens or even hundreds of papers and scientific materials. I kept asking myself why the process was so inefficient.
Then one day, I encountered an overseas clinical trial data service. The ease of access was shocking — it was clear that data could transform this entire workflow.
I wanted more researchers to have access to such tools, ideally in a more advanced form. The service I had used applied only ‘partial technology’ compared to what was possible. This became the foundation for starting MEDIAIPLUS.
Our platform incorporates both deep technical capability and real-world regulatory knowledge. Anyone working in clinical trials immediately recognizes its value — which explains the strong reaction we saw during Immersion Week.
Q. Don’t most industries already have academic or data-search platforms? What makes clinical trial data different?
In clinical trials, collecting data is only half the battle — refining it is far more important.
In fintech, AI adoption is fast because bank and card data is already structured. But medical data is highly unstructured, requiring enormous effort to clean and map. Raw data alone is meaningless.
There’s a famous saying in medical AI:
“If you could choose only one — a genius engineer, a supercomputer, or clean data — everyone would choose clean data.”
Drug names alone illustrate the issue. A compound may have a code name, then a generic name, and later a commercial name — and each country may adopt different nomenclature. Regulatory agencies also use their own terminology. Unless everything is mapped correctly, the data cannot be used.
In CRO-related services, the differences are even more granular. Definitions vary across agencies, hospitals, and vendors. We refine every dataset through partner meetings, customer feedback, and internal quality benchmarks.
Today, MEDIAIPLUS maintains 740,000 global clinical trial records, collected via MOUs, NDAs, web crawling, open data, customer input, and paid sources. The dataset grows daily.
Q. How do you monetize your refined clinical trial intelligence?
We earn revenue through (1) CRO matching fees and (2) data sales. We provide two core solutions:
(1)FiCRO — AI-powered CRO matching
FiCRO matches clients with the optimal CRO among 29,000 registered partners.
Finding the right CRO normally takes around three months because companies must identify candidates and execute lengthy CDAs.
FiCRO shortens this dramatically. Clients enter their trial goals, timelines, therapeutic area, and budget. The platform uses 20 evaluation metrics to automatically score and filter candidates, producing 3-5 optimal CROs. Because we pre-establish CDAs with CROs, the remaining process is faster. Overall time is reduced by about 87%.
(2)MediC — AI-driven clinical trial analytics
MediC analyzes and optimizes trial data to support faster, more accurate decision-making. We provide custom or strategic reports and offer a subscription-based clinical trial intelligence service.
Q. Your 2025 revenue target in your IR deck was ₩2.085 billion. Are you on track?
It depends on whether you measure revenue by contracts signed or cash received. Based on cash (the metric used in financial statements), we expect to hit our target by year-end. Using contract value, we’ve already surpassed it.
Currently, FiCRO accounts for 70% of revenue and MediC 30%. As our subscription business grows, the share of data sales will likely rise.
Q. This sounds like a milestone year for the company. Any final thoughts?
It’s been a difficult journey. For a long time, skepticism surrounded our global ambitions — sometimes overwhelmingly so.
But through GLO!VentUs, we finally took a meaningful step forward. I’m deeply grateful to the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation, CJ Investment, and Alchemist for giving us this opportunity. And I sincerely support all the founders walking this path.
◇ What Is CJ GLO!VentUs?
CJ GLO!VentUs is a global startup acceleration program jointly operated by CJ Investment and the Gyeonggi Center for Creative Economy & Innovation. In partnership with Silicon Valley-based accelerator Alchemist, the program offers eight weeks of market-entry education and on-site Immersion Week sessions in San Francisco, where startups pitch to investors and meet potential partners. The Gyeonggi Center serves as the national hub among Korea’s 19 innovation centers to support global expansion for Korean startups.
