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Carelus Launches Data-Driven Childcare Service

Dong-A Ilbo | Updated 2025.11.19
[SeoulTech x IT Donga Joint Planning] Seoul National University of Science and Technology (hereafter SeoulTech) operates various support programs to aid the growth of startups, including preliminary and early startup packages, maker spaces, and global collaboration. Furthermore, in partnership with IT Donga, it provides global news to assist startups in international promotion and expansion, introducing promising deep-tech startups both domestically and internationally.

Nahyun Park, CEO of CareUs / Source=IT Donga

The core of care services is quality and trust that guardians can rely on. However, the existing market continues to struggle with chronic issues of service quality imbalance and lack of trust. The root causes of these problems are cited as insufficient verification of personnel expertise, lack of service standardization, and real-time feedback systems.

CareUs is a care-tech startup that emerged to solve the qualitative issues of care through technology. It aims to provide expert-level services that systematically ensure not only child care but also the safety and development of children, utilizing its own programs based on medical and developmental evidence, along with digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), data, and real-time streaming.

Born from the Urgency of Working Moms

CareUs was initiated from the urgency experienced by Nahyun Park, CEO of CareUs. During her tenure as a working mom, she personally felt the severity of childcare gaps when her child was frequently hospitalized over five months, leading her to decide to resign due to the difficulty of balancing childcare and work. Drawing on her experience of founding various businesses, she was selected for the Antler Korea startup program last November, where she began to conceptualize CareUs in earnest.

Nahyun Park stated, "When designing the initial model, CareUs chose a premium model with the clear principle that 'care is centered on safety and trust.' While existing care services focused on connecting personnel and customers to resolve information asymmetry, CareUs considers the quality of care itself as its core value," she emphasized.

Main Services: DearMomCare, DearMomPlay, DearMomBaby

DearMomCare app image / Source=CareUs

The core services of CareUs include ▲DearMomCare ▲DearMomPlay ▲DearMomBaby. DearMomCare is a premium care service divided into emergency care (matching within 2 hours) and regular care (over 120 hours per month). DearMomPlay is a service where an occupational therapist visits to conduct development play based on sensory integration. DearMomBaby, scheduled for release in November, is a specialized postpartum care service for newborns (under 100 days old) and can utilize government vouchers.

Through DearMomCare, when a guardian requests a service, a preliminary consultation is conducted to match a tailored expert (care manager) according to the child's developmental level. Play and care that promote development according to the child's growth stage and health management are provided. CareUs has developed 144 differentiated program contents, applicable up to three times a week for a year, in collaboration with play experts with over 10 years of experience.

The differentiation of CareUs lies in its personnel composition. It is centered on professional medical personnel such as retired nurses, occupational therapists, and development experts, systematically supporting children's development based on medical and developmental evidence. Nahyun Park stated, "Only rigorously verified personnel are deployed as care managers. The participation of highly experienced personnel is a key factor in ensuring service quality," adding, "CareUs maintains a stringent hiring process with a professional personnel employment acceptance rate of less than 25%. Applicants are evaluated on expertise (certificates, hospital experience), personality (responsibility), and service mindset (punctuality, communication)."

Provides development reports and care notes analyzing the child's speech, concentration, etc. / Source=CareUs

The introduction of body cams and care notes, implemented to improve service trust, is also a strength. Care managers wear body cams to record the child care process on video and provide it to guardians via real-time streaming. Development reports and care notes analyzing the child's speech, concentration, and other behaviors are also provided. Nahyun Park stated, "This allows guardians to visually check on their children at any time, gaining psychological stability, and they can verify the child's developmental status and growth process numerically," emphasizing, "Verification based on data and video is an indicator that enhances trust."

Combining Body Cams and AI…Enhancing Care Quality with Data

Datafication of the care process through body cams, with AI analyzing it for systematic quality management / Source=CareUs

CareUs's primary focus is to build a data-based care quality management system and expand it into a technology platform. The core is to datafy the care process through body cams, with AI analyzing it for systematic quality management. Based on the non-identifiable collection of children's behaviors, expressions, and voices, AI analyzes the child's play participation, concentration, and language response to provide tailored care. Nahyun Park stated, "AI can analyze videos to provide real-time coaching to care managers, allowing low-skilled personnel to quickly acquire high-skilled know-how," adding, "This ensures consistent quality of professional personnel."

Currently, CareUs has applied AI to some functions such as body cam video analysis, automatic care note generation, and developmental tagging, with plans to advance to voice and expression analysis in the future. Starting from August 2025, it will be selected for TIPS (Tech Incubator Program for Startups) to concurrently collect data and develop AI models over three years. Additionally, the long-term goal is to expand into humanoid-based care. Nahyun Park explained, "The accumulated data is valuable as it combines high-skilled care data from medical professionals with children's on-site responses."

Targeting Overseas Markets with High Dual-Income Ratios

CareUs has been rapidly growing since its official launch in March this year, surpassing KRW 10 million in sales within three months and securing 120 cumulative customers, focusing on key areas (Songpa, Gangnam, Mapo, Nowon, Pangyo, etc.). Nahyun Park stated, "The repurchase rate reaches 80%, and the fact that customers are acquired through direct searches and recommendations from existing customers, rather than advertising, is a significant indicator," adding, "Based on the demand for DearMomPlay and the launch effect of DearMomBaby within the year, we plan to secure a regular domestic customer base. The current high number of waitlisted customers is both positive and a challenge, which we plan to address by expanding freelancers to alleviate supply bottlenecks."

Nahyun Park, CEO of CareUs / Source=IT Donga

Ultimately, CareUs aims to provide AI-based care across the entire lifespan, beyond the child care market. It plans to develop an AI system based on care data over three years, proving its utility before proceeding with nationwide scale-up. Additionally, the body cam-based AI system applied to child care can be expanded to various fields such as senior care.

In conjunction with this, CareUs is pursuing global expansion, focusing on countries with high dual-income ratios and care issues, such as Japan, Singapore, North America, and Northern Europe. With the support of Seoul National University of Science and Technology, CareUs plans to participate in the large-scale open innovation event 'ILS (Innovation Leaders Summit)' in Japan this year, conducting market research and meetings with local investors to take the first step towards global market entry.

Nahyun Park stated, "CareUs aims to be more than just a care company, aspiring to be an AI-based global care platform," adding, "Starting with child care, we will expand into services that encompass care throughout a person's entire life. The ultimate goal is to create a world where parents can feel at ease, children grow healthily, and society is free from the burden of care."

IT Donga Reporter Kim Yeji (yj@itdonga.com)
AI-translated with ChatGPT. Provided as is; original Korean text prevails.
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