250912 Drug Development Firm Bichedam Closes Pre-Series A at 1.8 Billion KRW

Follow-on Investment from Y&Archer…Expanding Business into Health Supplements

Bichedam, a natural product-based new drug development company, successfully closed its Pre-Series A round. Both existing and new investors participated in the round, recognizing the company’s growth potential. The company plans to use the investment to accelerate clinical development and enter new business areas.

According to the venture capital (VC) industry on the 8th, Bichedam secured a total of KRW 1.8 billion in this round. The Korea Technology Finance Corporation (KOTEC) led the investment with KRW 1 billion, and Y&Archer along with Daegyeong Regional University Joint Technology Holding (Daegyeong Tech Holding) also participated. This brings the company’s total cumulative investment to KRW 2.3 billion.

Y&Archer and Daegyeong Tech Holding provided follow-on investments after participating in the seed round. Receiving reinvestment from accelerators (ACs) that rarely do follow-on funding is considered significant. Y&Archer utilized the “Gyeongsan City No.2 Venture Fund,” formed as a co-GP consortium with Daegyeong Tech Holding, as the investment vehicle.

The company had previously established ties with KOTEC through the 15th KOTEC Venture Camp IR Demo Day, where Bichedam was selected as an outstanding company. Additionally, it was recognized for its competitiveness by being selected for the TIPS program by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups in July last year.

Founded in 2022, Bichedam is a bio-startup targeting treatment of chronic geriatric diseases such as hypertension and dementia. Its core technology is a herbal-based ROCK (Rho-associated protein kinase) inhibitor.

ROCK inhibitors are promising for treating neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases due to mechanisms such as cytoskeletal remodeling, inflammation regulation, and neuroprotection. Bichedam is developing specialty pharmaceuticals targeting unmet medical needs including nocturnal leg cramps (NLC), geriatric hypertension, and microvascular angina.

With this investment, Bichedam aims to accelerate NLC clinical trials and enter the health supplement market. The company is developing and commercializing products such as “G-Care for Everyone’s Vascular Health” using regional medicinal plants, with plans to expand globally as well as domestically.

Bichedam recently opened an affiliated R&D laboratory at the Namdae Startup Incubation Center Production Technology Institute to strengthen research capabilities. This facility will focus on product development requirements including quality control of medicinal herbs and standardization of active ingredients.

Source: The Bell (https://www.thebell.co.kr/free/content/ArticleView.asp?key=202509080751267620105154)