May 25, 2025
Verify electric and autonomous vehicle systems, reduce time and cost by half" [venture "Why Pick"]
"A piece of equipment worth 300 million KRW only delivers real value when it saves the client 3 billion KRW worth of time."
Seung-beom Park, CEO of ACEWORKS, made the case on the 25th that speed is the defining competitive variable in the mobility industry. "The ability to verify and iterate on electronic components quickly is what separates the leaders from the rest," he said. "ACEWORKS is in the business of designing time — helping clients get their technology deployed faster and with greater confidence."
ACEWORKS is a technology-driven company providing Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulation (HILS) equipment, Electronic Control Unit (ECU) development, and custom engineering solutions for autonomous vehicles and EVs. The company traces its roots to 'ControlWorks,' founded in 2009, which later merged with 'ACELAB' before adopting its current name.
Its flagship HILS product can simulate a full range of EV control software — including Battery Management Systems (BMS) — without requiring a physical battery. Units are priced at roughly 400 to 500 million KRW each. The ability to run high-precision verification without a real vehicle has made the product a go-to for EV developers.
On the autonomous driving side, ACEWORKS concentrates its support on the Proof of Concept (PoC) stage. By delivering an integrated environment covering sensor simulation, ECU interfacing, and communications, the company enables clients to simulate concepts and lock in a development direction before a single prototype is built. "Autonomous driving isn't primarily a validation race — it's a PoC race," Park said. "You have to be able to verify fast and fail fast if you want to reach the next stage."
Running alongside its core products is a custom engineering service that gives clients access to flexible, on-demand development support — structured so that companies without large in-house teams can still execute complex projects. The model was built around a straightforward observation: not every company can afford to staff a full-scale development organization.
ACEWORKS' competitive edge comes from its open architecture. Rather than being tied to any single platform or vendor, the system is built to interface with a wide range of control systems. A landmark example is last year's BMS verification project with Hyundai Motor, which cut verification time and cost by more than half compared to conventional approaches — with results applied across dozens of production vehicle models.
The company currently works with around 300 clients worldwide. Domestic partners include major players such as Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution, while its international reach extends to Honda in Japan and Fisker in the United States. Defense mobility is another growing focus: ACEWORKS has worked alongside institutions including the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) over several years on high-mobility tactical vehicle ECUs and Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) control systems.
When Park joined in 2020, ACEWORKS had 30 employees and 4.3 billion KRW in annual revenue. By last year, the company had grown more than threefold — to 92 employees and 14.7 billion KRW in revenue. The next target is 100 billion KRW within five years, with a strategy built around deepening technological capabilities and expanding into infotainment, AI-driven verification automation, and cloud simulation.
Further out, ACEWORKS has its eye on introducing a European-style engineering outsourcing model to the Korean market. "In Europe, engineering outsourcing firms with tens of thousands of employees are a normal part of the industry landscape," Park said. "That culture doesn't really exist yet in South Korea — but ACEWORKS wants to change that."
Source: Financial News, Reporter Ji-min Shin imnn@fnnews.com