[Asia Economy Reporter Kang Nahum] Kakao Mobility is rapidly expanding its business by securing consecutive equity investments from major domestic and international corporations such as LG and Google. The company plans to solidify its position as the industry leader by expanding investments across all business areas, including taxi, designated driver services, trains, and aviation.
◆Corporate Value of 4 Trillion KRW... Doubled in 4 Years= According to industry sources on the 5th, LG is set to make an equity investment worth 100 billion KRW in Kakao Mobility. This investment by LG aims to explore new business opportunities in the future mobility sector for LG affiliates, including LG Energy Solution’s battery driving data acquisition and battery swapping, as well as LG Electronics’ electric vehicle charging solutions.
In particular, LG Energy Solution is strengthening its capabilities in the ‘BaaS (Battery as a Service)’ business, which manages and diagnoses the lifecycle of electric vehicle batteries from manufacturing to utilization and reuse. LG Electronics introduced a pilot service for an integrated charging station management solution at the end of last year, which includes electric vehicle charging status monitoring, remote control, and diagnostics. Kakao Mobility plans to jointly create new business opportunities by combining LG’s battery and automotive electronics expertise with its own platform capabilities.
With this, Kakao Mobility has achieved a cumulative investment of 1 trillion KRW within four years since receiving its first investment from the TPG consortium in 2017. Including LG, four rounds of investments have been made this year alone: 220 billion KRW from the Carlyle Group in February, 56.5 billion KRW from Google in April, and another 140 billion KRW from the TPG consortium and Carlyle last month.
The company’s valuation is also soaring rapidly. Kakao Mobility, which was valued at 1.6 trillion KRW in 2017, has now reached a valuation of 4 trillion KRW with LG’s latest investment.
◆Investing in All ‘Modes of Transport’ from Kickboards to Aviation= With a massive war chest of 1 trillion KRW secured, Kakao Mobility is expected to focus on expanding its business areas going forward. So far, Kakao Mobility has led diversification and new demand creation in taxi services by launching Kakao T Venti and Kakao T Blue in the domestic mobility market. It also demonstrates outstanding capabilities in areas such as designated driver services, parking, and navigation.
Additionally, by signing business agreements with shared kickboard companies like PUMP and G-Bike, Kakao Mobility has announced its entry into the personal mobility (PM) market. Recently, it launched the ‘Kakao T Aviation’ service, which allows users to search, book, and issue domestic flight tickets, providing services for taxis, intercity buses, trains, and airplanes all on a single platform.
Kakao Mobility is also targeting the aftermarket by launching services such as car washing, maintenance, and electric vehicle charging for 20 million car owners within Kakao T. In the third quarter, it plans to introduce quick delivery services, expanding its domain to the ‘movement of objects and services’ and accelerating the realization of TaaS (Transportation as a Service).
Based on its vast accumulated mobility data and big data analytics capabilities, the company is also aiming to expand its platform into various new business areas such as finance, advertising, and e-commerce.
◆Fierce Competition with Rival T Map Mobility= The competitive landscape with T Map Mobility, which is also rapidly expanding its business, is another point of interest. T Map Mobility recently unveiled a new brand identity (BI) and declared a re-launch as a comprehensive mobility platform.
T Map, operated by T Map Mobility, was launched in 2002 as ‘Nate Drive’ and has surpassed 30 million subscribers in 20 years. According to Statistics Korea, there were 33.19 million licensed drivers in the country last year, meaning 90% of them are subscribed to T Map.
T Map Mobility plans to add the designated driver brokerage service ‘T Map Safe Driver’ by the end of this month and will introduce services such as ▲electric vehicle charging station reservation and payment ▲parking guidance, payment, and exit services under ‘T Map Parking’ ▲integrated kickboard services ▲public transportation guidance in the second half of the year.
Since Kakao Mobility already provides similar services, competition between the two companies over market share is expected to intensify further.
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