Gyeongnam Venture Investment Bets on Jeju Rent-a-Car Platform 'Jjimcar' Nature Mobility

Middleware Strategy Through Proprietary Platform
Strengthening Domestic Base and Potential for Global Expansion

[Asia Economy Reporter Kwangho Lee] Gyeongnam Venture Investment has secured Nature Mobility, the operator of the integrated mobility platform "Jjimcar," a nurturing company of the Jeju Center for Creative Economy and Innovation, as part of its portfolio. Despite the challenging market conditions, the company has made investments, playing a catalytic role in the growth of startups.

According to the investment banking (IB) industry on the 4th, Gyeongnam Venture Investment recently deposited investment funds into Nature Mobility. As investment sentiment has rapidly cooled recently, with follow-on investments predominating over new investments, the company has attracted attention by making new investments.

Nature Mobility officially launched its business in 2018 by releasing "Jjimcar," a platform that technologically resolves inconveniences faced by small and medium-sized rental car companies in the Jeju area. It carries the slogan "Beyond mobility, an integrated platform tailored to my own journey." Currently, it operates its headquarters in Jeju Island, along with branches in Seoul and a corporation in the United States.

Jjimcar boasts an artificial intelligence (AI)-based mobility system. It supports not only real-time price comparison but also rental car resource management. Recently, it has expanded its service scope to provide airline tickets, tour taxis, and car-sharing services. Plans are underway to introduce public transportation linkage services in the future.

Based on this growth strategy and business model, Nature Mobility achieved sales of 23.4 billion KRW last year, just four years after its founding. Riding on this success, it was consecutively selected in the first half of this year for the Ministry of SMEs and Startups’ (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry of SMEs) "Baby Unicorn 200 Nurturing Project," the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism’s "Tourism Venture Business Growth Tourism Venture Division Company," and the Ministry of SMEs’ "Regional Star Company Nurturing Project."

Kim Taehyun, Executive Director of Gyeongnam Venture Investment who led the investment, said, "By employing a middleware strategy using its own platform Jjimcar, it can benefit from the revitalization of Jeju Island’s tourism industry in the future," adding, "We judged that after strengthening its domestic base, global expansion would also be possible."

He continued, "Usually, platform operators secure their own members to promote their business, but Nature Mobility partners with other commerce companies such as Naver, Tmon, and Coupang," emphasizing, "Even if customers are unaware, they naturally rent vehicles using Nature Mobility’s platform."

Lee Jusang, CEO of Nature Mobility, stated, "We will continue to focus on technology and integrated capabilities to optimize mobility experiences and secure differentiated competitiveness," adding, "We plan to diversify our business into a sustainable management system to welcome the future mobility era, including autonomous vehicles and urban air mobility (UAM), which are now within sight."

Meanwhile, Nature Mobility laid the foundation for growth by attracting 400 million KRW in Pre-Series A investment in 2020. Subsequently, it successfully secured 4 billion KRW in Series A investment last year. Following that, it completed Series B worth 10 billion KRW in July, recording cumulative investments of approximately 15 billion KRW.