Kidneys give almost no symptoms until 90% of their function is gone, so most people are diagnosed late. The real difficulty, though, begins after diagnosis.
Patients are increasing, and the causes sit outside the kidney: the dinner table changed, metabolic disease rose, and the population aged.
₩2.7T → ₩29.3T (2017 → 2024). "We cook at home" fell from 93.0% to 60.4%. Ultra-processed food rose from 17.4% to 25.3% of energy intake.
14.8% of adults 30+ (2022). About 14.1M in prediabetes. Obesity among men in their 40s: 61.7% (2024).
Korea became a super-aged society in 2025. CKD prevalence at 70+ (25.9%) is about four times the adult average.
KSN registry 2023 · n = 137,705
Diabetes and hypertension alone account for 68%. Kidney disease does not start in the kidney.
We do not claim causation. Observational studies report a 1.25× CKD risk in the highest ultra-processed-food group (meta-analysis of 4 cohorts) and 1.51× proteinuria risk with obesity. Only the registry's cause shares are measured values.
The economics of kidney care come down to one comparison.
The top bar being almost invisible is the accurate picture. Delaying one patient's dialysis by one year avoids roughly ₩27M in that year alone.
This is the logic that built companies in the U.S. Strive Health raised a $550M Series D (Sept 2025), Somatus $325M, Monogram Health $375M from CVS, Cigna and Humana, and Interwell Health was valued at $2.4B in its three-way merger. None of them charge patients. They share savings with payers.
One in seven U.S. adults has chronic kidney disease, and most don't know it. Korea has no official awareness statistic at all.
Asian Americans are especially exposed: 23% of South Asian, 22% of Southeast Asian, and 14% of East Asian adults have diabetes (JAMA 2019), and 26% of Asian Americans with hypertension also have CKD — the highest share of any group. That is why the first U.S. beachhead is the Asian-American community.
Korea's chronic-disease app market is crowded around diabetes.
VC-backed or with disclosed revenue · surveyed Aug 2026
Diabetes: Dr.Diary, Kakao Healthcare, Huray Positive. Kidney: only the nephrology society's free public app "Heidi" (2019).
Diabetes has continuous glucose monitors that feed data automatically, and enough patients for B2C scale. Kidney disease has no such sensor; the data arrives once every three months, from the hospital. So patients still write on paper.
The contest is not about sensors. It is about designing something patients will log into every day — behavioral design and brand, which is where we are strong.
CKD Tracker · KidneyPal · KidneyDiet. Lab logging and "a PDF for your doctor" already exist, but they are diet-centric or early-stage.
myDaVita · Fresenius PatientHub. Free but closed to their own patients. Pre-dialysis patients are out of scope by design.
Interwell · Somatus · Strive · Monogram. Deep pockets, but they cover only contracted members and source engagement tech through acquisition or partnership.
CKD included as a standalone priority for the first time. The Korean Society of Nephrology is pushing a CKD Management Act.
A registration and performance-certification track for digital health-support devices opened, giving wellness products a door into the system.
Still covers only hypertension and diabetes. The moment CKD is added, demand for patient-management tools becomes institutional.
Korea's wellness criteria and the FDA's General Wellness and CDS guidance were both revised in a loosening direction.