Hyundai Motor Group announced its 2023 first-half ZER01NE Accelerator program, an open innovation platform to facilitate collaboration between startups and various teams under the Group on various projects. This program aims to discover valuable startups and explore the possibilities of strategic use case of their innovative technologies.

Startups can apply to one of 18 global projects devised by the Group’s internal teams under six key themes: autotech, mobility service, smart factory, robotics, metaverse and proptech. Startups may apply to one specific project.

Autotech has four projects:

• Battery cells that do not react to moisture

• Sensor surface cleaning solution

• Li-metal battery (LMB) material and cell technology

• UX R&D for UAM built-in design using lighting technology

The Group’s participating teams that are responsible for project execution are directly involved in reviewing and recruiting the startup applicants for each project. Only incorporated startups will be eligible for consideration and can submit their application on the official application website from up to 12 March. Results will be announced in April.

Selected startups will be provided with a project development budget and could be evaluated for equity investments.

Since the Group introduced the ZER01NE Accelerator in 2018, 150 teams from 11 affiliates of the Group and 140 startups have worked together on 107 collaborative projects. This has led to 74 startups successfully receiving equity investments from the Group.