Curiosis

Founded in 2015, Curiosis is a bio-materials, parts and equipment company that develops and manufactures laboratory automation equipment and medical devices based on bioengineering and automation control technology.

Its flagship product is the Celloger series of automated live-cell imaging systems, complemented by the CPX colony-picking automation system, the Cellpuri automated cell separation device, and the MSP digital pathology scanner.

As of 2024, automated live-cell imaging accounted for the vast majority of revenue at 66.7%, while the lab automation (ODM) segment contributed only 0.1%, with the remainder classified as other revenue.

The company generates about 70% of its sales overseas through a distributor network spanning 24 partners across 19 countries, including Japan, the United States, and Europe.

More recently, alongside its own-brand sales, Curiosis has broadened its channel mix through original design manufacturing (ODM) agreements with global life science company Revvity for colony picker and live-cell imaging equipment.

Its production base is centered on a plant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, where a March 2026 expansion completion ceremony brought the number of manufacturing lines to 15, securing annual production capacity of roughly KRW 100 billion in sales terms.

The company has stated a plan to expand manufacturing lines to 32 by 2027, raising capacity to about KRW 200 billion.

During its IPO valuation process, global large-cap life science equipment makers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific and Revvity were cited as comparable companies, illustrating that the competitive landscape in which Curiosis operates is dominated by large global players.

Consolidated 2025 revenue rose 34.8% year-on-year to about KRW 7.30 billion from KRW 5.41 billion in 2024, yet the operating loss widened to approximately KRW 7.53 billion from KRW 6.21 billion a year earlier.

The net loss attributable to owners also deepened to roughly KRW 7.76 billion in 2025 from KRW 4.88 billion in 2024. Still, the operating margin improved modestly, from -114.6% in 2024 to -103.1% in 2025, suggesting revenue growth partially offset the pace of loss expansion.

On a quarterly basis, revenue fell from about KRW 1.93 billion in the second quarter of 2025 to KRW 1.15 billion in the third quarter, then jumped to KRW 2.68 billion in the fourth quarter, dropped back to KRW 1.15 billion in the first quarter of 2026, and rose to a five-quarter high of about KRW 3.47 billion in the second quarter of 2026.

This sawtooth revenue pattern reflects the structural tendency for large ODM or supply-contract deliveries to be recognized in concentrated bursts within specific quarters.

Meanwhile, net losses attributable to owners over the same period were roughly KRW -1.34 billion, -2.07 billion, -2.15 billion, -1.48 billion, and -2.08 billion, indicating losses in the high-hundred-million to low-two-billion-won range persisted every quarter without a clear improving trend despite revenue growth.

Over the trailing four quarters from the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026, the combined net loss attributable to owners totaled about KRW 7.78 billion, showing the annualized loss level has not meaningfully narrowed.

On the balance sheet, equity jumped to about KRW 28.2 billion in 2025 from KRW 9.71 billion in 2024, pulling the debt ratio down from 78.9% to 21.4%, an effect attributable to capital raised through the KOSDAQ listing.

However, operating cash flow remained negative for a second straight year, at about KRW -7.35 billion in 2025 following KRW -4.78 billion in 2024, indicating continued cash consumption from operations.

The lab automation market is seen as expanding across various biotech fields as demand for experimental automation grows in new drug development and cell and gene therapy manufacturing.

Curiosis was recognized for contributing to the localization of domestic life science equipment technology through the commercialization of automated colony pickers and high-resolution imaging systems, earning the 2025 Biotechnology Innovation Award from the Korean Society for Biotechnology and Bioengineering.

Structurally, the biotech equipment market tends toward high-mix, low-volume production, since each piece of equipment requires optics, mechanics, electronics, and software simultaneously, and larger global companies often face R&D bottlenecks due to complex internal decision-making and development processes.

As a result, companies either acquire proven equipment makers or outsource to fast-moving development partners through ODM arrangements, and Revvity is cited as having chosen the latter path in its collaboration with Curiosis.

Curiosis presents its ability to commercialize new products in roughly 11 months, enabled by in-house integration of optics, mechanics, electronics, and software technologies, as a development-speed advantage compared with competitors that the company says typically require three to five years.

In terms of competitive positioning, large global life science equipment makers such as Thermo Fisher Scientific, Revvity, and Mettler-Toledo International dominate the market, leaving smaller specialized equipment makers like Curiosis to pursue niche and ODM-based strategies leveraging price competitiveness and rapid custom development.

At a January 2026 IPO investor briefing, Curiosis management said the company expects to turn profitable in its first fiscal year as a listed company, and indicated that it anticipates an operating margin of 30% once revenue surpasses KRW 30 billion and 40% once revenue surpasses KRW 50 billion.

However, actual 2025 revenue came in at about KRW 7.3 billion, and first-half 2026 revenue stood at roughly KRW 4.62 billion, meaning substantial further revenue growth would be required to reach those thresholds.

On the capacity side, the company has laid out a plan to expand its Yongin plant's current annual capacity of about KRW 100 billion to KRW 200 billion by 2027 through 32 manufacturing lines.

Regarding channel expansion, the colony picker ODM contract with Revvity runs from January 2026 to January 2029 covering Greater China including Hong Kong and Macau, structured on a minimum order quantity basis, with actual revenue depending on future purchase order volumes.

The company has said it is discussing additional collaborations with multiple global companies beyond Revvity, leaving open the possibility that ODM partnerships could extend beyond China into the United States and Europe.

On the technology front, Curiosis registered a core patent in May 2026 for the Celloger Stack-H, a live-cell imaging system designed for large multi-layer bioreactors, outlining plans to expand into quality-control automation for cell and gene therapy and biologics contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) processes.