SK Inc., Expanding Southeast Asia Business with US Mobility Investment Success

Doubling Profits in 5 Years Through Investment in Car Sharing Platforms
"Focus and Selection in a Rapidly Growing Market"

U.S. P2P car-sharing platform company Turo. Photo by Turo website

Investment specialist SK Inc. is expanding its mobility business in Southeast Asia based on the capabilities accumulated in the advanced mobility market of the United States.

On the 16th, SK Inc. announced that it has signed a contract to sell its entire stake in the peer-to-peer (P2P) car-sharing platform company Turo for $67.5 million (approximately 88.1 billion KRW). The sale will be made to existing shareholders, with the transaction expected to close within the first half of this year.

SK Inc. achieved a return of approximately 121%, more than double the initial investment of $35 million (about 39.8 billion KRW at the time), after investing in Turo for over five years since 2017.

Founded in 2009 in San Francisco, USA, Turo has grown into the world's largest P2P car-sharing platform company, providing services in over 10,000 cities including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and France.

Unlike the B2C (Business to Customer) car-sharing model where companies rent out vehicles they own, Turo’s model allows individuals to share their privately owned cars, offering advantages such as lower prices and simpler procedures for pick-up and return compared to traditional rental cars.

Focusing on the rapidly growing mobility platform market, SK Inc. has proactively invested in leading car-sharing and mobility technology companies in various global regions, starting with an investment of about 100 billion KRW in Korea’s SOCAR in 2015, followed by investments in Grab and Turo.

Based on its global investment achievements, SK Inc. plans to strengthen investments in car-sharing, electric vehicle charging platforms, and autonomous driving solutions in both domestic and Southeast Asian markets. In particular, SK Inc. has set a goal to develop SOCAR Malaysia, where it is the largest shareholder, into a leading mobility platform in Southeast Asia with high growth potential.

SK Inc. entered the Southeast Asian mobility market in 2017 by establishing the joint venture SOCAR Malaysia with Korea’s SOCAR, and secured management rights by acquiring additional shares in SOCAR Malaysia in 2020. Currently, SOCAR Malaysia has grown into Malaysia’s number one car-sharing platform with over 1.9 million members and a market share exceeding 90%. Notably, the number of users surged from about 5,000 per month during the COVID-19 pandemic to approximately 20,000 per month recently.

SK Inc. has developed SOCAR Malaysia into an integrated mobility platform by combining the existing B2C car-sharing business model ‘SOCAR’ with the U.S.-style peer-to-peer car-sharing model ‘Trevo’ and the Korean-style designated driver model ‘Buddy Driver.’

Based on this differentiated business model, SOCAR Malaysia expanded into the Indonesian market, which has a population close to 300 million, in 2020. In 2021, it attracted investments totaling 65 billion KRW from global private equity firm East Bridge Partners and Malaysian multinational Sime Darby, recognizing its growth potential.

Meanwhile, Kyung-sang Yoo, Head of SK Inc.’s Digital Investment Center, stated, “Building on successful investment experiences in advanced markets, we will strengthen the virtuous cycle of investments as an investment specialist company by selecting and focusing on markets expected to grow rapidly.”

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