A few months ago, the South Korean automobile giant Hyundai Motor Group revealed its plans to ramp up its stake in a local startup specialized in autonomous driving technology and invest 400 billion won, roughly $308.19 million. Therein, the automaker plans to introduce more than 31 electric models through 2030 to secure a projected 12% of the global electric vehicle market.
Whereas earlier the year, the Seoul-based automaker disclosed plans to invest about 95.5 trillion won through 2030 in its autonomous driving technology and electric-vehicle (EV) industries.
In keeping to this target, the Korean automobile giant has now revealed today that it will increase its investment by setting up a 200 billion autonomous driving technology startup nurturing fund next year, a fund 2.5 times higher than this year.
The Seoul-based automaker announced this today at the Korea-US Startup Summit held in New York. According to the firm, it made the decision to increase the “Zero One” fund from 80 billion won this year to 200 billion won the next year to find creative start-ups and encourage open innovation. Therefore, the number of destinations will increase from 24 to 50 locations.
Additionally, Hyundai Motor further explained that it is expanding investment as the importance of next-generation semiconductors is emerging and the development of future mobility technologies such as autonomous driving and urban air traffic (UAM) is necessary.
At the same time, the firm equally pointed out that startups will create the technologies of the future to attract funding, and Hyundai Motor will increase its competitiveness by working with potential startups.
“The future new industry cannot be done by group companies alone, and we have grown with more than 1,000 domestic partners in the existing automobile sector,’ A Hyundai Motor official said, “There is a demand for technology in the autonomous driving and semiconductor sectors, and discovering and nurturing related startups can be a win-win for each other.”
