Hyundai Motor spins off 3 in-house startups in innovative sectors

Hyundai Motor Group said on Tuesday it has spun off three promising in-house startups, which the South Korean automotive group has nurtured as part of its program to innovate beyond the boundaries of the auto industry.

PIT IN, MADDE and EVA CYCLE are now standalone companies after developing and commercializing their technologies over the past nine months, earlier than scheduled, through Hyundai Motor Group’s internal startup program ZERO1NE Company Builder.

PIT IN is a company that provides commercial electric vehicles, including taxis, with refurbished batteries on a subscription basis.

MADDE manufactures silicon carbide parts using 3D printing for chipmakers and aerospace companies.

EVA CYCLE has the technology to extract black powder containing valuable metals such as lithium, nickel and cobalt from discarded batteries.

As independent companies, Hyundai said the three startups will strengthen their enterprise competitiveness with PIT IN expanding its business scope to the commercial battery insurance and fast charging service businesses; MADDE entering the small reactor business; and EVA CYCLE aiming to cut black powder extraction costs by over 50% compared to conventional methods.

With the latest three companies, Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Korea’s two largest carmakers, Hyundai Motor Co. and Kia Corp., has spun off 33 in-house venture firms since 2000.

HYUNDAI’S INNOVATION DRIVE

Hyundai Motor Group has so far fostered 76 internal startups through its in-house startup incubation program ZERO1NE Company Builder.

The company launched its internal startup incubation program Venture Plaza in 2000 and then changed the name to ZERO1NE Company Builder in 2021 to encourage innovations from developers in various sectors.

Once designated as an in-house startup, the company is granted up to 300 million won ($226,929) in development funds from Hyundai and one year to develop and commercialize its technology or service before the carmaker makes a final decision on whether to let it stand alone.

To ease the burden of those who want to start an in-house venture firm without losing the security of their job at Hyundai, the developers of the carved-out startups are allowed to return to the automotive group within three years of their separation.

ZERO1NE Company Builder is part of Hyundai Motor Group’s open innovation program, the ZERO1NE Creative Talent Platform, showcased at 2023 CES in Las Vegas in January.

Hyundai Motor Group, under the leadership of Chairman Chung Euisun, hopes to have access to innovative ideas of creators beyond its own boundaries through the ZERO1NE platform, the company said.

Under the program, Hyundai also runs an outside startup accelerator program called ZERO1NE Accelerator and a platform dubbed ZERO1NE Playground for creators including artists, designers, architects, entrepreneurs and scientists.

Write to Il-Gue Kim at Black0419@hankyung.com

In-Soo Nam edited this article.