VC's Autonomous a2z 'courtship' > News (주)오토노머스에이투지

The unwritten rule that divides venture capital and startups into A and E is breaking. The emergence of domestic unicorn startups targeting the global market has created a crack in these relationships. VC's investment strategy has also changed. Rather than discovering various investment destinations, it is changing its trajectory to a strategy of concentrating on follow-up investments in a small number of bright start-ups.

The key is to discover and nurture mature cotyledons as quickly as possible. As startups that grow rapidly after investment have emerged, quick investment decisions have become more important than anything else. It is advantageous in many ways in that it not only allows you to invest when it is undervalued, but also gives you the opportunity to participate in subsequent investment rounds.

In this atmosphere, the eyes of VCs were focused on Autonomous a2Z. In the third year of its establishment, it secured 16 billion won in the first investment round for institutional investors. This is the largest amount of funds secured by venture companies in the Series A phase this year. The face of investors is also glamorous. Kakao Mobility participated as a strategic investor (SI), and large VCs such as Korea Investment Partners and KB Investment were listed as investors.

What is worth noting is that all of the investment companies that reviewed Autonomous a2z's IR have completed the payment. It is evaluated that it is quite unusual in the industry that all of the investors who reviewed IR in the initial stage completed the race. Due to fierce competition, the amount of investment attraction more than doubled from the original target (5 billion won). It proves that the interest of VCs is that hot.

The competitive courtship of VCs stems from a clear 'growth roadmap'. Autonomous a2z, a company that develops autonomous driving solutions, is unattractive as an investment in that autonomous driving has not yet been commercialized.

Autonomous a2z took the government task as a breakthrough. As a stepping stone for a long-term project towards the era of autonomous driving, it is a strategy to first build trust in autonomous driving technology while operating pilot services in partnership with the government and local governments. Since its foundation in July 2018, the cumulative amount of government R&D projects alone has exceeded 24 billion won. 

Autonomous a2z received momentum with this VC's big bet. It started with software development, but is now expanding its business area to vehicle production with the goal of introducing the world's first mass-produced unmanned mobility without a steering wheel.

In the process of growth of a venture company, a VC that can discover the potential of the company and make an investment of a certain size is required. It was possible because the VC recognized the potential startups that gave Autonomous a2z a bigger goal.

As computer scientist Alan Kay once said, the best way to predict the future is to create it. This is the reason why Autonomous A2G is expected to move forward in the era of autonomous driving that has not been visited yet.

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