RAY Co., Ltd, Poised for Rapid Dental Category Growth As Round of Venture Capital Closes
Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) February 26, 2015 -- RAY Company (“RAY”), formerly a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics, has announced a new initiative to become an independent manufacturer of market-leading dental imaging technologies. RAY’s strategic decision to leave the Samsung Electronics venture fund provides the company the freedom to focus on the core passion of its founder, Dr. Sangchul Lee, in building a flexible, dynamic company developing innovative, disruptive dental imaging technologies. RAY’s singular focus on the dental market and significant investment by a top venture capital firm out of Silicon Valley will lead to substantial growth, particularly in the crucial U.S. market, which comprises 70% of all dental imaging sales.
RAY has just closed a round of funding from BRV Lotus, the Asia fund of BlueRun Ventures, a firm with a proven history of investing in technology and medical sectors that transform industries. BRV Lotus has a history of driving businesses to long-term growth. With this investment, BRV Lotus enables RAY to continue their quest to develop innovative dental imaging technologies that provide exceptional image quality, an improved clinical workflow, and superior patient care.
“We have taken a significant investment in RAY because their technology and team have a proven ability to revolutionize the dental category,” said Jh Ryu, of BRV Lotus. “Their vast technical expertise, combined with the development and quality control experience gained from Samsung Electronics over the past few years has had a lasting effect on RAY’s ability to provide a new level of technological innovation, quality, and overall value to dentists around the world and, especially, the vital U.S. market.”
In the last year, RAY, in partnership with LED Dental (a subsidiary of LED Medical Diagnostics TSX-V: LMD), has proven their ability to penetrate the U.S. dental imaging space with the RAYSCAN Alpha Extraoral Imaging System, exceeding sales targets, reaching profitability and delivering year-over-year growth of 190% for 2014. RAY plans to create a US-based operation, with offices in Atlanta, Los Angeles and New York to support the rapidly growing customer base.
RAY will be announcing their latest extraoral imaging system, the RAYSCAN Alpha Plus, at the International Dental Show in Cologne, Germany, March 10-14, 2015. Along with the recent launch of RAY’s new RIOSensor Digital Radiography System (an intraoral sensor with dedicated x-ray imaging software), this exciting new imaging platform will be another contribution to the company’s broad product platform.
In obtaining independence from Samsung Electronics, RAY will retain the intellectual property, research and development, upcoming product pipeline and the key employee talent that has driven the company to become an emerging leader in the dental imaging space. All current RAY employees will be retained and continue in their current roles, including founder and current CEO, Dr. Sangchul Lee, a recognized expert in the field of iterative reconstruction technique in computed tomography.
Dr. Lee concludes, “Ever since I was a PhD student, I have had a passion for leveraging technology in the dental space. This exciting investment by BlueRun will enable the team at RAY to focus solely on how to deliver dental practitioners the best imaging technology for better patient care. Our goal will be to become the market leader in three years and this investment will get us there.”
About RAY (RAY Co., Ltd.)
Since 2004, RAY Co., Ltd. has specialized in researching, developing and producing high-quality digital imaging systems for the medical and dental industries. Due to the company’s development of superior imaging technology, RAY became a subsidiary of worldwide technology leader Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd, in 2010. Under the Samsung brand, RAY launched the RAYSCAN Alpha - Expert in 2012 and rapidly penetrated the US market in 2014. With the success of the RAYSCAN Alpha, RAY made the strategic decision to become an independent imaging company in 2015, singularly focused on its future as a leader in the worldwide dental imaging market.
About BlueRun Ventures and BRV Lotus
BRV Lotus was established in 2012 as an extension to BlueRun Ventures to invest in technology and consumer sectors in Korea and China. BlueRun Ventures, established in 1998 in Menlo Park California, is a venture capital focusing on helping entrepreneurs to build lasting businesses and successful exits in the crossroads of technology, ideas and global markets. BlueRun Ventures was one of the first outside investors in PayPal.
Media Contact:
RAY Company, Ltd.
Kevin Cho
Managing Director, US
eunhwan.cho(at)RAYmedical(dot)co(dot)kr
201-745-0200
Kevin Cho, Ray Co., Ltd., +1 (201) 745-0200, [email protected]
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