Kakao Healthcare is restructuring its board around new majority shareholder CHA Hospital & Bio Group, shifting its business focus toward hospital-centered operations. The company is transitioning from business-to-consumer (B2C) to business-to-hospital (B2H) transactions alongside its entry into the electronic health records (EHR) market. The moves are expected to accelerate profitability improvements.
According to industry sources on Wednesday, Kakao Healthcare recently reorganized its board around CHA Hospital & Bio Group executives. Key affiliates' leaders, including Yoon Kyung-wook, CEO of CHA Healthcare, and Song Jong-kuk, CEO of Chacares, have joined as non-executive directors. Representatives from financial investor IMM Investment were also included. The personnel changes follow the management rights sale to CHA Hospital & Bio Group late last year.
Industry observers say the board restructuring is a step toward building a new business model, given the limited profitability of the existing B2C operations. The strategy aims to secure a revenue base through synergies with the majority shareholder's hospital network. Pasta, the company's flagship AI-powered blood glucose management service, has maintained free platform access domestically despite having revenue sources such as continuous glucose monitor (CGM) sales commissions, resulting in limited contribution to earnings. Consequently, losses have continued to widen despite top-line growth. Revenue in 2024 reached 23.1 billion won, up 93.5% from the previous year, but operating losses increased 12.4% to 39.2 billion won.
Kakao Healthcare is particularly focused on AI-based EHR business leveraging CHA Hospital & Bio Group's domestic and international hospital and clinic network. The company recently launched "Project X," an EHR system development initiative supporting round briefing generation, prescription recommendations, and automated medical record documentation.
The company also plans to expand hospital-based data business. It is pursuing a "data enabler" business that standardizes patient data for pharmaceutical companies and contract research organizations (CROs). The vision is to integrate dispersed hospital data to improve clinical efficiency and ultimately connect to new drug development.
As of late last year, Kakao Healthcare's largest shareholder was Chacares with a 47.03% stake, followed by CHA AI Healthcare (36.58%) and Kakao (16.39%). During the management rights sale last year, Kakao Healthcare announced a rights offering in which former majority shareholder Kakao would invest 40 billion won and a consortium of other investors would invest 50 billion won. When the rights offering concludes in the first half of this year, shareholding is expected to shift to CHA Hospital & Bio Group at 43.08%, Kakao at 29.99%, and external investors at 26.93%.
