This article was published on Feb. 28, 2025, at 5:13 p.m. on the ChosunBiz MoneyMove site.
Venture capital (VC) Korea Investment Partners has secured a position as the partner for discovering new growth engines for Hyundai Motor Group. This follows Hyundai Motor Group obtaining the status of a preferred managing company (GP) for a venture fund with a planned contribution of up to 300 billion won. If finalized, Korea Investment Partners is expected to become the 'vanguard' in discovering future business opportunities for Hyundai Motor Group.
According to industry sources on the 28th, Korea Investment Partners has been selected as a key negotiation target for the venture fund contribution project aimed at discovering new growth engines for Hyundai Motor Group, which was promoted at the end of last year. It has been reported that discussions are currently underway regarding the total aggregates and managing methods with Hyundai Motor Group's future strategy headquarters.
Hyundai Motor Group is said to have pursued collaboration with VC under the leadership of its open innovation (OI) promotion division in the second half of last year. The group carried out some strategic investments using its open innovation platform, 'ZER01NE,' but it remained at the level of initial investment and the scale of investment was judged to be small.
At that time, Hyundai Motor delivered a request for information (RFI) to more than 20 major domestic VCs and also announced plans to finalize the managing company within the year. While planning to contribute up to 300 billion won, it was found that other large domestic VCs, including Premier Partners, IMM Investment, and Stick Ventures, also submitted proposals.
Although some procedures were delayed due to organizational restructuring at the end of last year, Hyundai Motor is said to be hastening negotiations led by its future strategy headquarters. The future strategy headquarters, which oversees the future business plans of group affiliates, was newly established at the end of last year. The OI promotion division has been placed under this headquarters.
Hyundai Motor is reported to have a high regard for the global managing capabilities of Korea Investment Partners. This stems from the belief that Korea Investment Partners possesses investment capabilities not only domestically but also overseas. In fact, Korea Investment Partners has branches in Silicon Valley and New York, and has a local corporation in Singapore.
Hyundai Motor aims to invest in promising domestic and foreign startups by utilizing the investment network of VCs that have the capability to discover promising startups. If Korea Investment Partners is ultimately confirmed as the managing company, it will handle the management, while Hyundai Motor's OI promotion division is expected to be entrusted with some authority to support the nurturing of the investment firms.
However, it is reported that the likelihood of pouring all 300 billion won into a single fund creation is low. The overall budget is said to be 300 billion won. They are pushing for the establishment of a venture fund worth 100 billion won in the first year, while keeping the possibility of recruiting additional managing companies open. It is also reported that they are considering collaboration with overseas managing firms as well.
In addition, Hyundai Motor Group is expanding startup investments by building a venture fund with Hyundai Motor Securities, a new technology financing entity. This is aimed at finding promising innovative corporations like Boston Dynamics, and Hyundai Motor has decided to invest 14.4 trillion won in 'strategic investments,' including M&A, over the next 10 years starting in 2024.
Meanwhile, Hyundai Motor stated, "It is true that we are promoting venture investment collaboration with external VCs to discover future business opportunities for the group, but we have not yet confirmed Korea Investment Partners as the sole managing company." They added, "We are in discussions with multiple candidates regarding the managing methods."