Kia invests $9 mn in fintech startup Banksalad

South Korea-based Kia Corp. is set to invest 10 billion won ($8.7 million) in Banksalad Co.'s Series D funding round as the automaker aims to generate synergy with the fintech startup in the mobility sector, the company announced on Aug. 9.

Banksalad is the country's first MyData business operator that runs a data-based asset management service. MyData is a government-led business model in which financial institutions are required to provide customers’ personal information to a third party approved by a MyData business operator. 

This gives individuals, instead of companies, the ownership over their personal information and they can use MyData businesses to browse and analyze their data scattered across various sectors including finance, medical service and telecommunications.

Kia decided to invest in Banksalad because of the startup's competitiveness in data-based service development and management. Following the investment, Kia and Banksalad plan to join their efforts on data technologies and co-develop services that combine mobility and finance.

Starting in October, Banksalad will be able to collect users' credit information from other financial institutions and combine the data with Kia's data to develop financial products alongside making use of MyData for car insurance services.

This marks the first collaboration between a domestic fintech startup and an automaker. It is also the second time that Banksalad has attracted funding from a non-fintech investor, next to mobile carrier KT Corp.'s 30 billion won investment earlier in April.

So far, Banksald has raised 65 billion won for the Series D round, but the figure is expected to top 100 billion won once wrapping up the investments that are currently on the table.

Since its release in 2017, Banksalad has been downloaded over 8.8 million times and it has managed over 410 trillion won.

Write to Chae-yeon Kim at why29@hankyung.com
Danbee Lee edited this article.