Hyundai Motor spins off trio of innovative in-house startups

Hyundai Motor has spun off three in-house startups with what it deems to be highly promising business ideas, such as EV battery recycling.

CEOs of in-house startups of Hyundai Motor take a group photo on July 21 in southern Seoul. [HYUNDAI MOTOR]

Hyundai Motor has spun off three in-house startups with what it deems to be highly promising business ideas, such as EV battery recycling.

They were part of Hyundai’s ZERO1NE Company Builder program, that the automaker has been running since 2000, which helps its employees to establish startups beyond the automotive sector.

The three startups include PIT IN, a company that offers battery subscription services for business-purpose EVs like taxis and Eva Cycle, a company that extracts black powder from used batteries.

PIT IN will help taxi drivers replace the batteries of their EVs with refurbished batteries in order to better manage them. It targets those who need to use EVs for longer time periods and longer distances.

Eva Cycle has developed its own technology to extract black powder — a mixture of nickel, cobalt and manganese — from scrap batteries so that they can be used again as a raw material in making cathodes, the critical component in making batteries and take up 40 percent of battery cost.

The biggest disadvantage of extracting black powder is that it offers low profitability, but through Eva Cycle's technology, the time and cost could be cut by half, it said.

Madde produces silicon carbide, a material in making semiconductors, through three-dimensional printing.

Each of the selected startups will be offered 300 million won ($230,000) in aid from Hyundai Motor. The startups will have one year to develop their business until the automaker then decides whether to leave them as spinoffs or subordinate them into one of the carmaker’s departments.

Employees will be able to be rehired to Hyundai for three years, in order to reduce their burden, Hyundai said.

“Hyundai Motor has fostered a total of 76 teams so far, and, of them, 33 have been spun off,” a Hyundai spokesperson said. “We will endeavor to raise more innovative and creative startups through expanding open innovations.”

BY SARAH CHEA [chea.sarah@joongang.co.kr]