01
Company Name Embodies His Original Resolution
In May of 2015, Mr. Ra took the post of CEO of WiseThan, announcing the launch of the cloud car company. The company name “WiseThan” represents the company’s value: “We are more Wise Than DotCom.” He also established the company’s vision while revisiting his original resolution, saying “Our goal is to grow into a specialized cloud-car company that encompasses automotive IoT technology and products.” A vehicle diagnostic system, launched by the company in 2014, was highly praised due to its competitive advantages in performance and price, and thus was exported to Hyundai Motor Manufacturing plants in Brazil for the first time in 2015. Unfortunately, however, the company was not given an opportunity to implement the mass delivery of the product because the domestic automotive market was mainly based on networks of affiliates of major car manufacturers.
As the development of futuristic vehicles, such as electric cars and autonomous cars, is underway in earnest, competition has become fierce in the global automotive market. The existing automotive market has also operated based on an ecosystem that has been built for a long time; it is composed of various entities, including OEMs, primary component vendors, secondary component vendors, and semiconductor companies, and hence it is much more difficult than it looks for a small startup to make its entry into the market. To make its way to market, WiseThan has attempted to develop new service models that can be used by general vehicle drivers as well.
02
ETRI Technologies as New Growth Engine
Recently, the utmost focus of the automotive industry has been placed on how automotive software can keep pace with the upcoming transition of vehicles toward autonomous systems. Leading global car makers have already started to fiercely compete with one another to take the initiative in the AUTomotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR). However, this was not the case for the domestic market. Back then, Mr. Ra’s rationale was that even a small startup could possibly play a winning game if it could equip itself with a competitive edge before competition started in earnest in the domestic automotive platform industry. As a result of his market research, he came to the conclusion that AUTOSAR 3.X-based CAN flash memory technology, developed by ETRI from 2011 to 2014, was the key to gaining quick entry into the domestic market. Ra said, “While I was preparing for technology transfer, I came to know about the research institute company program provided by the INNOPOLIS Foundation. I learned that, aside from tax benefits, the program provided various advantages, such as R&D business support and technical support programs. Then, I decided to turn my company into a research institute company.” It took approximately seven months for the entire procedure, from the application to the evaluation and the final announcement, but the outcome was sweet. Some employees who had connections in Daejeon welcomed the relocation of the company. Fortunately, for this reason, the head office relocation was successfully implemented without worrying about losing human resources, and hence technology development and new business execution proceeded seamlessly as planned. Also, technology transfer from ETRI helped deepen the understanding and expertise of not only software but also automotive components.
03
Path toward Automotive IoT
Ra said, “In the past, vehicle information was exclusively owned by vehicle manufacturers; however, in the future, all vehicle devices will be connected with apps so that customers can proactively monitor the status of their cars and gain access to information to compare between repair shops.” With the emergence of the cloud era, WiseThan has been continuously preparing services that allow the sharing of vehicle diagnostic information and various multimedia materials based on IoT solutions. Currently, the company is focusing on the development of IoT devices that use mobile communications networks compatible with IoT solutions, such as LORA and LTE-M.
As a certified research institute company renowned for its technological prowess, WiseThan was awarded a project with conditional purchase options ordered by the Small and Medium Business Administration in April and is now implementing the project, aimed at connecting smartphones with vehicles in cooperation with Humax, which will use the technology when it is completed. WiseThan is deeply committed to becoming a specialized cloud car company that provides automotive IoT solutions and products, and its vision is gradually being specified year by year. In the current form, WiseThan is a software-oriented company, but Ra has made a rough sketch of the future of the company: recruiting engineers specialized in hardware by the end of the year, building sales organizations, and establishing manufacturing facilities. He also has a big-picture view, i.e., to supply automotive accessories that are unique to WiseThan and can be universally used by all drivers, such as black boxes and navigation systems, to the global market. He said with confidence, “A company is not built only on the effort and success of individuals. What’s more important is to ensure all individuals advance together even though the pace is slower. I, together with all my employees, will continue to prove this idea true and turn it into practice.” After a year of trial and error, he has gained an even more powerful growth engine, and today he takes one step closer to his dream: building a cloud car company that will rise beyond the clouds.
