April 19, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] French carmaker Renault has partnered with a Korean association so it can work with startups with advanced mobile technology expertise for the development of next-generation vehicles, the carmaker‘s local unit said on Oct. 2.

Before setting up an “open innovation office” in South Korea next month, the French carmaker signed a memorandum of understanding with the K-ICT Born2Global Centre, an organization set up under the Ministry of Science and ICT to foster startups, Renault Samsung Motors Corp. said in a statement. 

“Korea, with a high automotive sales rate compared to population and advanced information technologies and environments, is the ideal test bed market for new technologies before launching them at the global level,” Renault Group Executive Director Stephen Marvin said in the statement.

Through the memorandum with the K-Global startup center, Renault will be able to discover promising companies that can work with Renault while providing active support so that they can enter overseas markets following validation in the domestic market, he said.

Renault has launched the open innovation offices in Silicon Valley of the United States, Paris, France and Tel Aviv, Israel for partnerships with innovative startups, the statement said.

By Ahn Sung-mi and newswires (sahn@heraldcorp.com)