Korea Exchange announced on Wednesday that SOCAR, a south Korean car-sharing startup, has filed for an initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered in the IPO and the price range have not been determined.
SOCAR raised $50.7 million in October of 2020 to reach an $834 billion (1 trillion won) valuation. The company has raised a total of about $275 million since it was founded in 2011.
It has previous investors that include Bain Capital, SoftBank Venture Asia, and more.
The company plans to launch a transportation super app this year that will provide all-in-one mobility services like car-sharing, electric bike-sharing, parking lot search, car-hailing, train reservation and more. Park said SOCAR would replace a fleet of vehicles with zero-emission, including electric or hydrogen-powered cars, by 2030.
Park said that SOCAR will advance its technology with the IPO proceeds. The company completed two acquisitions last month. SOCAR invested in RideFlux.
The firm launched its mobile app in 2012 after starting the car-sharing service with 100 rental cars in 2011. The SOCAR acquired a Korean mobile messaging app platform to operate a van-sharing service. The startup had to stop its van-sharing service in 2020 because of South Korea's revised law that restricts ride-sharing to only licensed taxis and restricts CarRentals.com from offering drivers. SOCAR sold a majority stake in the ride-sharing arm to Viva Republica.
SOCAR Malaysia has raised a total of $71.2 million since it was set up in the year.
The competition of the mobility platform industry in South Korea has intensified as local car-sharing companies such as TMAP Mobility actively expand their business in the country with ambitions to become the mobility super app. In October, a joint venture company was formed by the two companies to offer ride-sharing services in South Korea.
TMAP Mobility wants to list by 2025.
The company's car-sharing peers include Zipcar, Turo, and getaround.
Socar, Korea's answer to Zipcar, raised $18 million but isn't looking overseas just yet.
Kakao Mobility gets additional funding at a valuation of over $4 billion.
Turo has filed for an IPO.
Getaround raises $45 million from Toyota and others.
