Mercedes-Benz Seeking Korean Startups: "High Technical Understanding Makes Them Attractive"

Interview with Philip Nighting, Head of Open Innovation at Daimler

Philip Nighting Daimler Group Open Innovation Head (Photo by Mercedes-Benz Korea)

[Asia Economy Reporter Jihee Kim] "The greatest strength of Korean startups is their high level of technological understanding. Additionally, Korea's market itself is highly advanced and actively adopts new technologies early. Because of this, startups have the advantage of closely understanding the market's characteristics and observing its development up close."

Philip Nighting, head of open innovation at Daimler Group, the parent company of Germany's Mercedes-Benz, gave this assessment of Korean startups on the 10th. He selected Korea this year as the seventh global location for Daimler Group's global open innovation platform, 'Startup Autobahn,' following Germany headquarters, the United States, China, and others.

Startup Autobahn is a platform established by Daimler Group in 2016 to discover promising startups and build cooperative systems. It provides expert mentoring, networking, and investment attraction opportunities to startups with outstanding ideas or technological capabilities. This year in Korea, five startups were finally selected in August to participate in a 100-day acceleration program.

During an online interview held to commemorate the 'Expo Day,' where these startups shared their development achievements, Nighting said, "Over the past 100 days, we have gone through a period of assessing whether the technologies and ideas of these startups can be incorporated into Mercedes-Benz's products and services. From now on, we will verify maturity and timeliness and discuss whether actual business is feasible."

He also mentioned the case of Cochlear.ai, which gained an opportunity to collaborate with Daimler headquarters through last year's 'Connected Car Startup Hackathon' held in Korea, adding, "We are currently discussing moving beyond negotiations to actual business."

While highly valuing the potential of Korean startups, he also pointed out some shortcomings. He advised, "Since Korean startups tend to focus heavily on the domestic market, their accessibility to international collaboration is low. Efforts are needed to increase accessibility to global collaboration based on excellent technological capabilities and ideas."

Through Startup Autobahn, Mercedes-Benz has collaborated with thousands of startups worldwide over the past five years. Among them, 15 ideas have been realized. A representative example is the UK-based 'What3words,' which improves accuracy by dividing the world's locations into 3m by 3m squares using three assigned words. This service is currently applied in Mercedes-Benz's infotainment system MBUX's navigation system.

Regarding the criteria for selecting startups, Nighting replied, "They must align with Mercedes-Benz's strategic elements such as electrification, digitalization, efficiency, and sustainability." This means that growth potential as a partner company of the multinational Mercedes-Benz is prioritized. This also benefits companies participating in Startup Autobahn. Through a kind of 'venture client approach,' startups can gain experience, references, and meet partner companies' demands and cooperation.

Currently, more than 30 companies, including automakers and energy firms, participate in Startup Autobahn alongside startups. Among them are competitors of Mercedes-Benz such as Hyundai Motor Company and Porsche. Nighting said, "From the early stages of the program, we have been committed to creating the best platform in the mobility industry and have collaborated with various global companies. We hope that through this approach, cooperation with various companies will expand in Korea as well."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.