15th HMG Open Innovation Tech Day
Hyundai Motor Group Invests 1.3 Trillion KRW in Domestic and International Startups Over the Past 5 Years
Supports the Creation of Domestic and International Startup Ecosystems
Focus on New Businesses Such as SDV, Resource Circulation, Low Carbon, Semiconductors, AI, and Quantum Technology
"We are looking for startups that will lead positive changes in human life through innovative technologies and services."
Hyundai Motor Group held the 'HMG Open Innovation Tech Day' on the 15th, revealing the current status of startup investments and the achievements of open innovation. At the event, Hyundai Motor Group introduced various new technologies from startups in which it has directly invested and is collaborating with.
First, Mobin, a last-mile delivery robot specialist company, presented a delivery robot capable of climbing stairs. The robot developed by Mobin is equipped with flexible rubber wheels that maintain balance while climbing stairs. It uses 3D LiDAR and cameras as sensors, enabling nighttime delivery as well. Mobin plans to conduct a pilot delivery robot project with Hyundai Construction and Hyundai Glovis.
A delivery robot created by Mobin, a company specializing in last-mile delivery robots. This robot is equipped with flexible wheels that allow it to go up and down stairs. [Photo by Woo Su-yeon]
Mobiltech, which possesses immersive digital twin technology, is a representative company that has grown through investment from Hyundai Motor Group’s Zero1 Fund. Through its proprietary LiDAR fusion sensor processing technology, it acquires road data and creates a virtual digital twin space. For example, Mobiltech has collected all traffic and weather-related data by date around Gangnam-daero. By selecting the date of the record-breaking heavy rain last summer and viewing the road in a virtual space, it is possible to identify which areas were flooded at that time. Mobiltech also provides virtual autonomous driving test spaces to autonomous driving technology developers including Hyundai Motor Group.
A virtual replica city created using Mobiltech's immersive digital twin technology. Autonomous vehicles can be test-driven in this virtual city, where real roads are realistically implemented. [Photo by Woo Su-yeon]
Viewmzin combines autonomous drones and AI vision technology to provide quality and safety inspection solutions for construction sites. Typically, quality inspections for a 20-story apartment building take four days. The process of workers physically inspecting cracks on the exterior walls at high altitudes is not only prone to accidents but also less accurate. Viewmzin deploys autonomous drones that detect micro-cracks as small as 0.3mm from outside the building. As a result, the inspection period, which previously took more than four days, has been reduced to half a day, and related costs have been cut to about one-third.
Storyboard expressing the business ideas of startups invested in by Hyundai Motor Group Photo by Woo Su-yeon
In addition, Hyundai Motor Group introduced successful cases of collaboration through overseas investments. Notable examples include Ionity, Rimac, and Ola Electric. Ionity is a European ultra-fast charging infrastructure company for electric vehicles in which Hyundai Motor Group has equity investment. Hyundai offers a premium package that allows Ioniq 5 customers to use Ionity charging facilities free of charge for one year. Rimac, a high-performance electric vehicle company, has rapidly grown to a corporate value of 2.2 billion euros. It is recognized for contributing to the advancement of high-performance electric vehicle technology through joint projects with Hyundai Motor Company and Kia.
Ola Electric is an Indian electric two-wheeler manufacturer. Since Hyundai Motor Group’s investment in 2019, the company’s value has increased approximately elevenfold. It holds the number one market share in electric two-wheelers in India, a country with a large population. Supported strongly by the Indian government, it has been selected as a subsidy beneficiary company. This year, it plans to be the first Indian company to mass-produce batteries directly.
Since 2017 through the first quarter of this year, Hyundai Motor Group has invested 1.3 trillion KRW in over 200 startups. This figure excludes large-scale overseas investments such as Boston Dynamics, Motional, and Supernal. Notably, more than half of the total investment (753.7 billion KRW) was made in the mobility service sector. This was followed by electrification (281.8 billion KRW), connectivity (126.2 billion KRW), artificial intelligence (60 billion KRW), autonomous driving (54 billion KRW), and energy including hydrogen (25.3 billion KRW).
Hyundai Motor Group operates innovation hubs called 'Cradle' in five countries?United States, Germany, Israel, China, and Singapore?to discover promising startups worldwide. Domestically, it established 'ZER01NE,' which serves as an open innovation hub. It also runs an in-house startup program for employees. So far, a total of 30 startups have spun off, employing more than 800 new personnel.
Going forward, Hyundai Motor Group will continue open innovation to foster a global startup ecosystem. It plans to prioritize investment in startups that contribute to humanity and society while collaborating with Hyundai Motor Group. Areas of future interest for additional investment include SDV (Software Defined Vehicle) related technologies, resource circulation, low carbon, semiconductors, artificial intelligence, and quantum computing.
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