Luxury carmaker Infiniti targets future ‘unicorns’ with new start-up accelerator programme

Infiniti Motor Company, the Hong Kong-based luxury vehicle division of Japanese carmaker Nissan, aims to add another name to the city’s nascent billion-dollar-start-up club, with the launch of a new accelerator programme focused on consumer retail innovation.

“It’s going to take some time. But if we do our job right, these start-ups should go on to raise more equity, grow their business and get themselves in a position to become the next unicorn,” Dane Fisher, the general manager for global business transformation and brand at Infiniti, told the South China Morning Post on Thursday.

Fisher said the point of accelerators is to help nurture more good companies to challenge the status quo and create an ecosystem built on fresh concepts and new business models wanted by consumers, which are attributes exemplified by on-demand logistics services providers GoGoVan and Lalamove.

GoGoVan became the city’s first unicorn – a start-up valued at US$1 billion or more – in August after merging with 58 Suyun, the freight business of mainland Chinese online classifieds giant 58 Home.

While this week Lalamove raised US$100 million in its latest funding round to lift its valuation at close to US$1 billion, providing a boost to its expansion plans across Asia.

Infiniti has teamed up with Nest, the city’s pre-eminent early-stage venture capital firm for technology start-ups, to launch Infiniti Lab Global Accelerator 3.0, which follows their 2015 accelerator in Hong Kong that focused on so-called smart city development.