IMM invests $56m in Korea's Socar

Joseph Lee, a partner at IMM, told AVCJ that the firm will take a significant minority stake in Socar, whose other investors include Bain Capital, SK Holdings, and Premier Partners. IMM plans to help the company adopt a more formalized internal structure so it can execute expansion plans more efficiently.

Socar was launched in 2012 with 100 cars and has since grown to over 8,500 vehicles and 3.6 million registered users. Bain invested in Socar in 2014, leading a KRW18 billion Series A round via its affiliate Bain Capital Ventures. SK invested KRW59 billion the following year.

Socar claims to have recorded KRW110 billion in revenue last year, with year-on-year revenue growth of 50% over the past five years. Customers use a smart phone app to locate and rent a vehicle in their area, paying in 10-minute increments. The company is currently exploring autonomous driving technology for its fleet and is also working on expanding its user base, currently dominated by customers aged 20-30, to include more users over 30.

Socar’s largest competitor in Korea is Greencar, which has 2.5 million users and 6,000 vehicles. Earlier this year Socar opened its first overseas branch in Malaysia. The service launched with 240 cars in Kuala Lumpur and there are plans to expand the fleet to 1,000 cars by the end of the year and to 10,000 cars by 2020.

Other investors in South Korea’s mobility services space include TPG Capital, which led a consortium last year to invest KRW500 billion in Kakao Mobility, a spin-out of internet services company Kakao Corp, which offers taxi hailing, traffic information and parking-related services.

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• Topics
• North Asia
• Technology
• Consumer
• Expansion
• South Korea
• IMM Investment
• TMT
• automobiles