GS Group invests $26 mn in Kakao Mobility

South Korea’s GS Group has invested 30 billion won ($26 million) in Kakao Mobility Corp. to fast forward its energy unit’s transition towards future mobility.

The group said on July 26 that GS Energy, the energy subsidiary of GS Holdings, and the oil company GS Caltex have respectively invested 5 billion won ($4.3 million) and 25 billion won ($21.7 million) in Kakao’s Mobility unit. GS Caltex is a 50:50 joint venture set up by GS Energy and Chevron Corp.

The investment gave GS Group a 0.73% stake in Kakao Mobility, Kakao Corp.’s key unit that raised $50 million from Google in April and 100 billion won ($88 million) from LG Corp. earlier this month.

GS Caltex said that the investment will create synergies between its infrastructure of gas stations across South Korea and Kakao’s tech-driven mobility services. Moving forward, it will use Kakao Mobility’s wide range of data accumulated from future mobility sectors, including autonomous driving, in operating its 2,300 gas stations and 370 LPG stations within Korea.

“We specialize in ‘tangible’ businesses such as gas stations, whereas Kakao Mobility’s key capability lies in the ‘intangible’ areas including autonomous driving and AI. We will create a new industry segment by integrating the tangible with the intangible,” said a GS Caltex representative.

GS Caltex last November has launched a new future-oriented gas station under the name of Energy Plus Hub. This new type of gas station will offer various mobility services such as car sharing, drone delivery, electricity and hydrogen charging, as well as non-mobility offerings such as food, beverage and convenient store services.

Write to Jeong-min Nam at peux@hankyung.com
Daniel Cho edited this article.