Autonomous A2Z, also known as A2Z, completed a 40.5 billion won pre-IPO and set a record for the largest cumulative funding in South Korea's autonomous driving sector. A2Z said on Wednesday that the round brought its total funding to 122.5 billion won. Existing investors DS Investment Partners, Envestor, KB Investment, KB Securities and Hana Securities participated. Daesung Venture Capital, Suin Investment Capital and E&Venture Partners joined as new investors.

The funds will be used to secure inventory assets as the company expands its business at home and abroad, and for infrastructure investment and hiring to develop end-to-end AI autonomous driving technology. In particular, A2Z is preparing an application for a large-scale autonomous driving pilot project led by the transport ministry. It plans to secure in advance controllers, sensors and components needed for vehicle production.

It is also expanding overseas operations. A2Z is running autonomous driving projects in Singapore, the UAE and Japan. In Singapore, it is operating what it called the first autonomous shuttle bus service in a city centre in collaboration with Southeast Asian super app Grab. Its in-house lidar infrastructure system (LIS) is also being applied to the local transport system. In the UAE, it has obtained approval from the South Korean government for autonomous driving exports and is pursuing local contract wins. In Japan, it has started a robotaxi pilot operation.

A2Z is pursuing development of hybrid end-to-end autonomous driving technology that combines AI with its existing rule-based autonomous driving technology. It plans to focus on strengthening technical safety for the commercialisation of Level 4 fully unmanned autonomous driving while conducting both real-world driving data training and software advancement.

It will file an application in April with the Korea Exchange for a preliminary review for a technology special listing and will push to list on the KOSDAQ market within the year. Hana Securities and KB Securities, selected in 2023, will jointly serve as lead underwriters.

A2Z Chief Executive Han Ji-hyung (한지형) said the pre-IPO round was driven by a strategic judgement to secure practical execution capabilities for key projects being conducted with governments and companies at home and abroad. He said the company would strengthen the foundation for autonomous driving commercialisation to pursue an IPO and spread Korean-style autonomous driving technology worldwide through mass production of Level 4 autonomous vehicles and the building of a global data ecosystem.