Olive Union, a smart hearing aid manufacturing startup targeting the U.S. and Japanese markets, has won a contract worth up to $100 million (approximately 132 billion won) in the U.S. This is considered a 'green light' for its plan to be listed on the Japanese stock market in 2024.

According to the venture capital (VC) industry on the 9th, Olive Union recently succeeded in securing orders for hearing aid products worth a total of $100 million, including a $10 million contract with the American healthcare company Nations Benefit.

Founded in July 2016, Olive Union manufactures and sells smart hearing aids that connect to smartphones via Bluetooth technology. It attracted market attention by introducing its 'Olive Pro' product at the 2021 US information technology and home appliance show CES, and has attracted approximately 20 billion won in investment by 2022. In particular, in Series B, Patron, which supplies mobile phone parts such as camera modules and fingerprint recognition to Samsung Electronics, participated as an investor. Olive Union selected SMBC Nikko Securities as its listing company with the goal of listing on the Japanese stock market in 2024.

Olive Union plans to take the lead in the US hearing aid market through this US contract. Last year, the US classified hearing aids as ‘Over The Counter (OTC)’, allowing them to be purchased at pharmacies without a doctor’s prescription. An Olive Union official said, “There are about 30 million hearing impaired people in the US, and the OTC classification has opened up a new market,” and “We will secure abundant liquidity through investment attraction and listing, and lead the global market by supplying products to 800 million people worldwide by 2040.”