Darden Alumni’s Stroke Rehab Company Catches Wave of Startup Buzz

"The rehabilitation road back from a stroke or traumatic brain injury can be long and expensive.

The exercises and strengthening activities that can be critical to recovery are often tedious, repetitive and best practiced under the care of a medical professional. As a result, many patients simply never take full advantage of the help they need.

South Korean inventor Hoyoung Ban (MBA ‘11) saw the need for a better system in his home country firsthand, as the Darden graduate’s father and two uncles all suffered strokes. His father passed away following the stroke while Ban was an undergraduate student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. In the case of his uncles, effective rehabilitation therapy proved financially infeasible due to high cost of care in South Korea.

With the help of a partner, Ban formed the company Neofect in Yongin, South Korea, just south of Seoul, and led a team that helped design and bring to market the Rapael Smart Glove, a wearable device that connects to various digital training programs for relatively low-cost, varied workouts."

"Ban had launched companies before, including an online TV business targeting Koreans in Los Angeles, and saw an opportunity to put his entrepreneurial skills to the test again. He was about to begin an MBA at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and reasoned that this would bring him into contact with experts who would be able to help him write a business plan.

Marrying his start-up experience with Choi’s technical expertise and the support of Darden’s entrepreneurship tutors and alumni, Ban saw an opportunity to find a technological solution to the problem of post-stroke paralysis rehabilitation.

Ban and Choi were joined by fellow Korean-born Darden MBA student Scott Kim as co-founders of Neofect. By this point they had a plan: to combine a patented glove-like device with online games to provide fun and accessible physiotherapy. The actions of the game would be tailored to help patients regain and improve movement and strength."