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When Hyundai Motor engineer Sungjin Choi came across a pile of abandoned and corroding EV batteries in a scrapyard in 2017, the scene left a lasting impression.
Whether faulty or damaged in an accident, the batteries were discarded even though they are the most valuable part of an EV.
Anticipating the scale of the issue, Choi brought his concerns to Sanguk Lee in the carmaker’s new energy division. “That moment was a wake-up call for us,” says Lee. “At the time, very few people in South Korea — and even globally — were considering how EV batteries could be repaired, reused or remanufactured.” In the car industry “repair services are taken for granted, but in the EV industry it wasn’t the case back then”.
The pair went on to found Poen, which is placed 43rd in the 2025 FT/Statista High-Growth Companies Asia-Pacific ranking.
In 2017, global EV sales numbered in the hundreds of thousands; last year, that figure exceeded 17mn.
After spending just over a year in Hyundai’s start-up incubator, Poen was launched in 2020.
Since then it has secured $33.7mn in funding from domestic venture capital firms and institutional investors, as well as government research and development subsidies.
The company’s primary business is refurbishing damaged EV batteries for resale — a process that entails dismantling used battery packs, identifying and replacing any defective cells, and reassembling the packs for sale as pre-owned units.
“Our remanufactured packs cost about a third of the price of a new battery,” says Lee. In South Korea, Poen’s battery packs cost about $10,000-$15,000.
At present, Poen primarily works with NCM lithium-ion batteries (containing lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese) sourced from Hyundai and Kia, but the company’s technology is adaptable to any battery chemistry. It has found that about 80 per cent of the battery packs it receives can be reused — “the remaining 20 per cent are either repurposed for alternative energy applications or sent for recycling,” Lee explains.
Poen has so far sold 3,000 refurbished battery units, and its testing and diagnostics division serves some of the world’s largest EV battery manufacturers, including China’s CATL and South Korea’s SK On.
Patrick Lee, from Hyundai’s Zero1NE Ventures incubator platform, says that “it can be very hard for start-ups to meet the standardisation of big automakers. That, for us, is something Poen does well”.
Since emerging from Hyundai’s incubator, Poen has grown to become one of South Korea’s most notable start-ups. The company’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 150 per cent between 2020 and 2023 propelled its total revenue to $9mn in 2023, and it is targeting $100mn by 2028.
With $28mn raised in its second round of funding from domestic VCs and institutional investors, including The Industrial Bank of Korea, Poen is now expanding abroad — Lee is overseeing the construction of new manufacturing facilities in Germany and the US. By opening up new markets, Poen aims to diversify beyond South Korea, where EV sales have fallen for two consecutive years. The government has recently pledged $1bn to stimulate domestic EV demand, including consumer subsidies and lower road tolls.
But recent sales data also suggests a challenging outlook for both Europe and the US, while Hyundai reported a decline in global EV sales last year. The rapid pace of technological development in China’s EV and battery sectors means market conditions are shifting quickly and prices have fallen sharply, proving a challenge for established carmakers elsewhere.
“Automakers are increasingly focused on the circular supply chain, and we can help reduce costs while minimising hazardous waste. While EV and battery prices are falling, particularly due to competition from China, repairs will always be necessary,” Lee says. “I studied mechanical engineering, and I know that there is no machine without some degree of disorder. We target that percentage of battery disorder.”
Current EV sales figures provide an indicator of Poen’s market prospects. However, in a departure from the typical approach of VC investors, Tae Hong Park, at Korea’s SV Invest, is looking back — to 2021. “What is important for Poen is the point at which the EV industry reached critical mass. It typically takes 5 to 10 years for EV batteries to degrade to the point where they need to be remanufactured. We anticipate 2028-2029 as the key years for Poen based on a rapid increase in [EV] sales from 2021 or 2022 onwards,” he says.
South Korea is home to 91 high-growth companies overall, sharing second place on the list with Japan. Other notable South Korean companies include Library Company, a global live content business with a CAGR of 404 per cent, ranked fourth on the list, and Habit Factory, a fintech financial services company which has a CAGR of 327 per cent and is ranked fifth.
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