“The most personal is themost creative,” said the director Martin Scorsese said in the past. He left abig footprint in the history of world cinema. His words were quoted recently bydirector Bong Joon-ho, who swept four categories at the world-acclaimed AcademyAwards in 2020.

This saying can be applied to the startup industry as well. Manystartup founders started their businesses by finding items from their personalexperiences. Discomforts and skepticism from personal experiences in daily lifeand great ideas that popped up soon became creative business items.

However, not all of these personal and creative items aresuccessful. People fail to commercialize them because some do not have funds tostart businesses, and some cannot find suitable manpower and partners. So, inline with this, Corporate Venturing (CV) has emerged. It is an alliance betweenlarge companies and startups.

Of course, CVs don't always perform well. Some startups loseinnovation spirits and become regular companies after receiving investmentsfrom large companies. There are also cases where large companies steal thetechnology or manpower from startups, and even demand too many stakes, takingaway the growth potential of startups.

Large companies help startups with strong infrastructure,abundant funds, and vast networks. Instead of large companies that are too bigto respond quickly to market trends, startups try various innovations and sharethe results with them. The startups sail smoothly with the sail and windprepared by large companies. Together, they explore the unknown.

The collaboration between Mercedes-Benz Korea, an automobilecompany that dominates the world, and Coconut Silo, a mobility startup, isclearly an exemplary CV example. Mercedes-Benz Korea has gained young blood totry new ideas and innovations. Coconut Silo has met with a strong partner,recognition, and broad business areas. The Seoul Startup Hub (SBA), whichconnected them, created another successful CV case.

One day in August when the heat was at its peak, we met LeeSeung-ryong, Manager of Mercedes-Benz Korea, Kim Seung-yong, CEO of CoconutSilo, and Choi Su-jin, SBA Part Head at Mapo SBA in Seoul.

Mercedes-Benz Koreaholds hand with SBA to infuse startup Autobahn in Korea

First, Manager Lee Seung-ryong introduced Mercedes-Benz’sstartup support and fostering program Startup Autobahn. This program, firstdevised by the Daimler Group in 2016, is an event that invites promisingstartups from around the world to Germany for open innovation, which seeksinnovation with an external company of a large company or startup.

To the Daimler Group's plan, Regierungsbezirk Stuttgart inGermany has announced its intention to participate. Stuttgart is an industrialcity, and it has the funds, space, and infrastructure to foster businesses, butit has no chance to make open innovation for startups. Daimler Group andRegierungsbezirk Stuttgart established a joint venture and created an ecosystemto run the startup Autobahn.

Attracted to this joint venture, other German conglomerates likefreight forwarding company DHL, automobile maker Porsche, and mobile operatorT-Mobile also joined. Naturally, the mobility ecosystem, which is their commondenominator, has strengthened, and more startups that want to participatejoined. As a result, Startup Autobahn has established itself as the largeststartup incubation project in Europe.

Startup Autobahn was held in Korea for the seventh time in theworld in 2020 after having the event held in the United States, China, andIndia. In Korea, Mercedes-Benz Korea will be in charge of this project.

Manager Lee Seung-ryong is the person in charge of StartupAutobahn. He persuaded the company, thinking that it was a good idea and anessential business in Korea after seeing the examples of overseas StartupAutobahns in 2017. At the same time, Mercedes-Benz Korea was looking for a wayto strengthen the promotional marketing of its electric vehicle EQ series inKorea. He thought that an event that selects and fosters electric vehiclestartups is suitable for publicity and marketing.

The point of contact between electric vehicles and startups thatMercedes-Benz Korea thought was a “connected car (a vehicle that providesvarious functions by connecting to the Internet).” The company decided to holdthe event called Startup Hackathon (combination of hacking and marathon whichplanners, developers, and designers come up with ideas and produce resultswithin a limited time). However, there was not too much time for planning andexecution. The company had never run an event in the past either. That’s whenSBA reached out.

Mercedes-Benz Korea was attracted by SBA's rich startupinfrastructure and event management experience. Immediately after signing anMOU with support for startups, the first event, “Connected Car StartupHackathon,” was held in December 2019. The event ended successfully.

Thanks to fastening the first button well, the next button wasmuch easier to fasten. Excited about the success of the connected car startuphackathon, the two companies decided to hold a startup Autobahn in Korea in2020. Several innovative startups including Coconut Silo participated in thisevent. Even in 2021, startup Autobahn will open. In this year’s competition,big companies like SK Telecom and LG Electronics will also join.

The goal of Mercedes-Benz Korea is to lead Korean startups withskills to the global startup Autobahn, and to collaborate with startups withthe same values and goals.

Coconut Silo andStartup Autobahn meet in Vietnam, where Coconut Silo had started the future ofmobility

CEO Kim Seung-yong was inspired in Vietnam, which was his firstoverseas travel destination. Logistics and transportation account for 25% ofVietnam's GDP, which is particularly high compared to other countries. Althoughthe volume of freight continued to increase and the margins were high, it wasbeing operated very inefficiently. People received orders only by e-mails orphone calls, and the actual order was placed only after completing thepaperwork. In the meantime, the drivers of the trucks in charge of transporthad to wait.

Kim, who had worked in the product planning department forHyundai Motor’s freight car, devised a logistics business to expand in Vietnam.After outlining the business, he applied to Hyundai Motor Company's in-houseventure program, founded Coconut Silo in March 2020, and his company was spunoff in June of the same year.

Coconut Silo introduced “Coco Truck,” a hailing service fortrucks in Vietnam. Compared to other regular car-sharing services, it handlestrucks, and both the trucks and drivers can be booked. By utilizing the bigdata analysis, real-time truck location technology has been added.

Grand Prize in Jeju Island Public Data Utilization StartupCompetition, Grand Prize in the Ministry of SMEs and Startups Youth YouthContest, 2020 Mobile Technology Award, Award from the Minister of Science andICT, and being selected in the Ministry of Small and Medium Venture BusinessKSC New Delhi Startup Support Project and the project to receive support fromKorea Institute of Startups & Entrepreneurship Global Pitching Competition.These are the achievements of Coconut Silo in just one year and five monthsafter its founding.

With success in Vietnam, CEO Kim directed his attention to themobility industry in Korea. Although the Korean mobility market was close to beingfull, there was a niche in the service for trucks. Internet connection andautomation technology were being applied in trucks, but there was almost noinnovation. It was the moment when he saw the opportunity called truckmobility.

CEO Kim was on his way to implement truck mobility in the Koreanmarket. And, that’s when he heard about Startup Autobahn hosted byMercedes-Benz Korea and SBA. He was planning to apply for Startup Autobahn inGermany, but changed his plan and applied for the event in Korea.

When he saw that the competition ratio of Mercedes-Benz Korea’sStartup Autobahn was 20 to 1, he first thought that he could only get help forviral marketing or releasing press releases. However, when he witnessed thatDaimler Group is actively promoting the Startup Autobahn and promised greatsupport to the participating startups, he thought he should also join as themobility partner.

Building a mobilityplatform for truck drivers

Coconut Silo and Daimler, a truck manufacturer underMercedes-Benz Korea, jointly created a mobility platform for trucks. Unlikepassenger cars, the maintenance infrastructure for trucks and other trucks isstill poor. Daimler was looking for a consumer-oriented platform that wouldsmoothly provide warranty services such as maintenance and repair of trucks.Coconut Silo was the perfect candidate for the job and was selected as apartner right away.

Manager Lee Seung-ryong also said, “Several commercial vehiclestartups participated in the startup Autobahn at the time. We discussed ways toprovide truck drivers with the same level of convenience as car drivers, and wethought that the direction of Coconut Silo was the best in terms of not onlyseeing the market but also the ability to create a business model,”complimenting CEO Kim.

CEO Kim said, “Most truck drivers buy vehicles to make a living.Therefore, they have to be more thorough in the maintenance of their vehicles.Driving conditions are harsh, and in the event of an accident, it isimmediately life-threatening. However, the truck maintenance platform wasreally poor. It doesn’t pertain to only Korea. It is universal

That’s why we created Truck Doctor, a maintenance service amongthe truck mobility platforms. It is a business that provides convenient andfaithful maintenance solutions to truck drivers. Truck Doctor makes schedulingand managing truck maintenance easier. It also includes a function thatnotifies users of weather information necessary for driving and the nearestrepair shop. It is very convenient to use. Users can take pictures of thedamaged part of the truck and send it or request the repair by voice.

Furthermore, we want to create solutions for truck drivers.Truck drivers who drive alone at night or early in the morning are bored.That's why we're developing technologies that can provide companionship to thedrivers and a call center that will provide welfare. We are also consideringdeveloping an online meeting space for truck drivers, such as the clubhouse, avoice social media, and a truck simulation training program similar to the gameEuro Truck Simulator.

Coconut Silo wanted to go out into the world and meet otherbusiness partners by participating in Startup Autobahn. Now that we have met agood partner Daimler, we can focus on expanding the service.”

Manager Lee Seung-ryong said, “For 2021 Startup Autobahn, we aregoing to gather twice as many startups as the 2020 event. We are going toinvite institutions and corporate partners. Going one step further with fundingand proof of concept (POC), we are considering ways to support startups infull-fledged growth. Startups that are not affiliated with Mercedes-Benz arealso welcome,” as he strongly encouraged companies to join Startup Autobahn.

SBA wishes morecompanies to participate in the CV program that fascinated Mercedes-Benz

The Mercedes-Benz headquarters in Germany is evaluating theresult of cooperation with Coconut Silo and SBA positively. Furthermore,manager Lee Seung-ryong added that he is hoping for more alliances with Koreanstartups and companies.

SBA Part Head Choi Su-jin said she owes all of the success toMercedes-Benz. She said that when SBA was looking for a good CV case,Mercedes-Benz proposed collaboration right on time. As the schedule forHackathon was tight, SBA focused on promoting the event and recommendingparticipating startups. This was how the three final teams were decided, andsurprisingly, all of them were startups that were in SBA.

This situation looked like a good CV example. Mercedes-Benzshowed enthusiasm to invite startups participating in Hackathon to the Daimlerheadquarters in Germany. So, Choi was convinced that opening Startup Autobahnin Korea would yield greater results. Although there were trials and errors,Startup Autobahn went on, and now became a popular program.

Choi said, “SBA works with various partners such as the SeoulStartup Network and VCs (investment companies). It acts as a hub that connectsnetworks. So, the more the partners such as large companies and startups, thebetter.

When creating a successful CV model, the important thing is thatlarge companies take good care of startups and respect them. It was good tocooperate because it was Mercedes-Benz, which has created such a culture inStartup Autobahn.

Following OB Beer-RE:Harvest, S-Oil- Glory & Tech, it issurely exciting to make a CV success case with Mercedes-Benz Korea and CoconutSilo.  I want to create more cases wherelarge companies invest in startups that can bring open innovation and growtogether.”