Hyundai Motor invests in cloud, hydrogen firms for future mobility

Hyundai Motor Co., South Korea’s top carmaker, invested $21.6 million late last year in startups with promising technologies in non-automaking sectors to enhance competitiveness in future mobility.

Hyundai bought a stake in Tekion Corp., a US cloud-based automotive software provider, for 11.7 billion won ($9.5 million) on Nov. 30, 2021, according to the South Korean company’s filing to the country’s financial regulator on Wednesday.

Tekion developed an information technology infrastructure based on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for online car sales. It provides customers with non-stop services for car purchases while helping sellers analyze customer behaviors for marketing.

The startup based in Pleasanton, California more than tripled its valuation to $3.5 billion after raising $250 million from investors including Hyundai last year.

US top automaker General Motors Co., one of its key investors, is working with Tekion to improve its website. Hyundai plans to utilize its technologies to upgrade online sales networks and enable hassle-free car purchases as it aims to launch the used car business in South Korea.

HYDROGEN, QUANTUM COMPUTERS

Hyundai made investments in two companies in the hydrogen sector.

It invested 3.8 billion won in HiiROC, a UK energy solution company with pyrolysis hydrogen production technologies, in December last year. The company extracts clean hydrogen from hydrocarbons, air pollutants, at a low cost through the plasma process.

In China, Hyundai bought a 10.2% stake in Shuimu Tongda Transportation Co., the country’s first hydrogen fuel cell bus company, for 3.7 billion won in order to sell the Elec City Fuel Cell, Hyundai’s eco-friendly bus, on the mainland and build a related ecosystem.

In September 2021, Hyundai invested 7.1 billion won in IonQ, a US quantum computer company founded in 2015 by Jungsang Kim, a professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at Duke University, and Chris Monroe, a professor in the department of physics at University of Maryland.

Hyundai will use quantum computers for research to improve the performance, safety and cost of electric vehicle batteries.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com
Jongwoo Cheon edited this article.