Socar (403550.KS) is moving to establish Korea's largest autonomous driving entity, valued at 150 billion won ($103 million). The company plans to accelerate the commercialization of autonomous driving services based on its autonomous driving data and mobility platform operation capabilities.
Socar announced in a regulatory filing Wednesday that it had decided on a 65 billion won third-party allotment capital increase.
The new shares will be allocated entirely to Krafton (259960.KS). Krafton will join Socar as a major shareholder while also participating as a key investor in the new entity through a separate investment.
"Through the funds raised, we will invest in 'Apex Mobility,' which is scheduled to be established next month," Socar said. "Apex Mobility will develop and commercialize autonomous driving services and operate an electric vehicle-based autonomous driving mobility platform."
Socar plans to participate in establishing the new entity by contributing cash and data assets following a future board decision. The company also said it would announce the remaining form of capital contribution through relevant disclosures in May. Once the investment is completed, the new entity will rank as the largest in Korea's autonomous driving services sector in terms of investment scale, according to Socar.
Park Jae-wook, Socar's CEO who has led the company's autonomous driving new business since January this year, will concurrently serve as CEO of the new entity and directly lead the business.
The new entity will pursue phased commercialization of autonomous driving services. Starting with Level 2 (L2) car-sharing services, it plans to expand its business scope to fully autonomous driving-based business-to-consumer (B2C) services, including Level 4 (L4) ride-hailing. The new entity also plans to internalize technology and verify actual services in parallel, building its own technology and service operation capabilities, while pursuing comprehensive partnerships to grow into a future mobility service company with competitiveness in both domestic and global markets.
"Our goal goes beyond simply completing autonomous driving technology — it is to successfully commercialize it and fundamentally transform users' mobility habits and quality of life," Socar CEO Park Jae-wook said. "Building on the 15 years of data and operational know-how Socar has accumulated through car-sharing, we will create a new standard for the future mobility market."
