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Autonomous Transportation-As-A-Service Startup CODE42 Raises KRW 30 Billion in Pre-A Funding

  • Tuesday, October 1, 2019, 11:03 am
  • ACROFAN=Jae-Yong Ryu
  • jaeyong.ryu@acrofan.com
(from left) On September 30, YoungSang Ryu, EVP(Head of MNO Biz. Division) of SK Telecom; Hanwoo Park, President & CEO of Kia Motors; Chang-hyun Song, CEO of CODE42; I.P. Park, President and CTO of LG Electronics; and KyungMook Lim, Chief Strategy Officer of CJ Corporation met at the SERVEONE Building in Gangnam-gu Seoul, South Korea to attend the CODE42 Investment Signing Ceremony.

CODE42, an autonomous transportation-as-a-service startup established in March of this year, announced today that it has successfully raised KRW 30 billion (USD 25 million) in Pre-A funding, with investment by major Korean conglomerates including Kia Motors, SK, LG, and CJ. CODE42 previously raised a seed stage investment of KRW 2 billion (USD 1.7 million) from Hyundai Motor Company in March.

As lead investor, Kia Motors contributes USD 12.5 million to the deal. The KRW 30 billion investment also marks one of the largest Pre-A rounds of funding for the Korean startup market, with past references typically ranging under USD 10 million.

The newly raised funds will be utilized to complete development of CODE42’s core UMOS (Urban Mobility Operating System) platform, as well as establish the global autonomous transportation-as-a-service ecosystem UMOS Connect. Promising to serve as the enabler of autonomous transportation-as-a-service, the UMOS platform aims to integrate various kinds of future mobilities such as autonomous vehicles, drones, and delivery robots in order to encompass all phases and processes of mobility and logistics services from ride-hailing to robo-taxis to smart logistics and e-commerce.

“The investment by major Korean industry demonstrates investor trust in our industry-best technology, and equally, enables us to leverage the strength of our partners infrastructure and service capabilities with aim to establish a next-generation mobility and logistics service platform,” said Chang-Hyeon Song, CEO of CODE42. “Based on their specialized expertise and capabilities, we will be working closely with investor companies in an array of areas including autonomous driving and mapping technology, dispatching, fleet management, next-generation in-vehicle infotainment and associated connectivity.”

(clockwise from left) Hanwoo Park, President & CEO of Kia Motors; I.P. Park, President and CTO of LG Electronics; Chang-hyun Song, CEO of CODE42; YoungSang Ryu, EVP(Head of MNO Biz. Division) of SK Telecom; KyungMook Lim, Chief Strategy Officer of CJ Corporation met at the SERVEONE Building in Gangnam-gu Seoul, South Korea and held a discussion prior to attending the CODE42 Investment Signing Ceremony.

CODE42, established in March 2019, is an autonomous transportation-as-a-service startup headquartered in Seoul, South Korea, and founded by former Naver CTO, Chang-Hyeon Song. Having built a track record of innovative software engineering with multinational IT companies including HP, Microsoft and Apple, Mr. Song, in his roles as CTO of Naver, and CEO of Naver Lab, successfully led a variety of innovative projects including the AI speaker Clova, in-vehicle-infotainment service AWAY, Papago, self-driving technology, HD mapping and robotics solutions, as demonstrated at CES 2019.