[Breaking News Korea Tech] Socar Shifts Gears with a $44.5M USD Windfall

Socar, a Korean ride-sharing platform, is planning to rev up development with an investment worth $44.5M USD (50B KRW).

The multi million investment comes from four companies, KB Investment, Stone Bridge Ventures, and Softbank Ventures, along with the Silicon Valley-based VC, Altos Ventures.

This will be the second time Socar gained the confidence from benefactors. Last April, the company attracted $53.5M USD (60B KRW) from a Korean private equity fund, IMM Private Equity (IMM PE).

Socar plans to expand its infrastructure through R&D and enhance quality of service to better compete with recently launched ride sharing services.

Analysts say this investment was made from predictions that the size of South Korea’s mobility market will greatly expand at the expense of the car industry, which is believed to shrink.

Socar consists of 11,000 vehicles and 4.5 million members since its start seven years ago.

“Socar and Tada aim to make their cars easier to move without having to own them. We will establish a foundation for a Korean mobility platform so that we can provide optimized mobility.”

 

Socar Lee Jae-woong, CEO of Socar

Tada is also a mobility sharing service in Korea.