Ride, an automotive commerce specialist company led by CEO Lee Mincheol, announced on July 3 that it has signed an underwriting agreement with Shinhan Investment & Securities for a KOSDAQ listing and has officially begun the initial public offering (IPO) process. The signing ceremony was held at Ride's headquarters in Seocho-gu, Seoul.
Ride is a mobility auto commerce platform that provides integrated services across the entire vehicle lifecycle, including test drives, purchases, maintenance, and financing. By moving away from the traditional distribution structure of the automotive sales market, Ride offers a customer-centric and differentiated vehicle experience, rational and transparent pricing, and trust-based financial services, setting a new standard for vehicle purchases.
In particular, for this agreement, Ride selected Shinhan Investment & Securities as its final partner from among several securities firms, based on Shinhan's top-tier public offering performance in last year's IPO market. Shinhan Investment & Securities was highly regarded for its expertise and advisory experience in the automotive and mobility sectors, as well as for the potential synergy with Ride, which is pursuing technology-driven distribution innovation.
Founded in 2020, Ride started with the app-based mobility auto platform "RIDE NOW" and has rapidly evolved into an integrated platform encompassing vehicle purchases, maintenance, and financing. The mobile test drive reservation feature, focused on electric vehicles, was introduced for the first time in Korea. After achieving the No. 1 spot in the Google Play automotive app category in December 2021 and maintaining a Top 5 ranking for 12 consecutive weeks, Ride further enhanced its maintenance and purchase linkage features based on customer feedback. By digitalizing services across the entire vehicle lifecycle, the company achieved rapid revenue growth of 550% year-over-year.
Additionally, Ride has strengthened its offline competitiveness by merging with Sky Auto Service, a vehicle maintenance company, and GMC, an automotive education specialist. The company is expanding its supply chain in both B2C and B2B sectors through collaborations with diverse partners such as Polestar Korea, KGM, rental car companies, and capital firms.
Prior to preparing for the listing, Ride also actively attracted investment. In the first half of this year, the company secured a Series A investment totaling 5 billion KRW from IMM Investment, Infobank, and Anda Asia, bringing its cumulative investment to 6.5 billion KRW. Based on this, Ride is accelerating the advancement of its platform technology, the expansion of its nationwide maintenance infrastructure, and the broadening of its service coverage.
Lee Mincheol, CEO of Ride, stated, "Ride has been a pioneer in creating a new consumer-centric vehicle distribution structure. Through this partnership with Shinhan Investment & Securities, we can now fully showcase our business model and technological capabilities to the capital market," adding, "We aim to become a leading company in the global mobility distribution market, going beyond domestic electric vehicle commerce."
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