Hyundai Motor reaps benefits of startup investments

BY SARAH CHEA, Korea JoongAng Daily - A nearly 1-meter robot goes up and down the stairs delivering food and drinks. This robot will soon be on Korean streets as a flag person and even as a patrol officer.

This is what Mobinn, a robotics startup spun off from Hyundai Motor, hopes to realize at least by the end of next year.

Hyundai Motor Group on Thursday held an HMG Open Innovation Tech Day event in western Seoul to share its journey of investing in and fostering startups, as well as an update on their progress.

"Hyundai invested a total of 1.3 trillion won ($1 billion) in fostering more than 200 startups since 2017, including those started by our own employees," said Hwang Yun-seong, head of the Open Innovation Investment team at Hyundai Motor Group, during the event on Thursday. The investments in these startups, both local and overseas, were made via Hyundai Cradle, the company's unit focused on identifying and investing in innovative start-ups, whose Korean base is called ZER01NE.

"Our goal is to make this a win-win game by actively investing in start-ups that create new customer value and also offer us important insights in the process of cooperation," Hwang added.

Of the total investment, 753.7 billion won went to mobility firms while 281.8 billion won went to electrification companies. A further 126.2 billion won was spent on startups developing connectivity while 60 billion won was invested in artificial intelligence (AI) and 54 billion won in autonomous driving technology.

Massive investments in overseas startups like Boston Dynamics and Motional were not included in the title.

Five local startups were introduced during the event: Mobinn, MobilTech, which has developed self-driving technology, Metaverse Entertainment, an agency with virtual pop artists and influencers, ViewMagine, which develops AI drones, and Aplayz, an AI-based music service that automatically suggests music to users based on their location, mood, personality and even the weather and time.

Mobinn's delivery robot has wheels made of lightweight rubber, enabling it to freely navigate stairs. In April's test run at an apartment complex in Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, in cooperation with the convenience store chain CU, Mobinn delivery robots took 11 minutes on average to complete their deliveries, which was nearly 20 minutes quicker than deliveries made by humans.

"We have already spoken with the Korea Road Traffic Authority to launch the robot as a flag person by the end of the year," said Choi Jin, CEO of Mobinn. "And we aim to introduce it as a patrol officer by the end of next year."

"In the beginning, it was a very minor idea I brought up during a meeting as a Hyundai employee," Choi added. "But we made it all the way from there to here thanks to Hyundai's support not only in terms of finance but also technology."

Each of the selected start-ups will be offered 300 million won in aid from Hyundai Motor. The start-ups will have a year to develop their business, and the automaker will then decide whether to spin them off and if so, win a further 100 million won grant.

Meanwhile, ViewMagine's VODA service allows companies to detect defects on their building walls using an AI drone in tandem with data analysis technology.

"It takes four days for a human to inspect the building exterior, but with the drone, it only takes half a day," said ViewMagine CEO Kim Do-yeop.

Its client list includes Hyundai Engineering and Construction and Hoban Construction, as well as an unnamed Japanese company.

A total of 30 startups have been spun off from Hyundai so far, generating a total of 280 billion won in sales and creating more than 800 new jobs.

Hyundai vowed to invest further in startups, mainly in the "software, low-carbon, semiconductor, and AI sectors," Hwang added.

Source: https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/2023/06/15/business/industry/Korea-hyundai-mobinn/20230615165852370.html 

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