DOCOMO to Nurture Growth via New Venture Fund and Incubation Program
— Focusing on business models, technologies and services centered on mobility —
Financials
TOKYO, JAPAN, October 26, 2012 --- NTT DOCOMO, INC. Japan’s leading mobile operator and provider of integrated services centered on mobility, announced today that it will accelerate its development of new businesses for smartphones and tablets by establishing the 10-billion-yen (125 million USD) DOCOMO Innovation Fund and the DOCOMO Innovation Village incubation program by next March 31.
Both undertakings, in addition to helping to upgrade smart-device services and technologies in DOCOMO’s existing fields of business, will also accelerate development of business models, services and technologies for eight new strategic fields: Media/Content, Finance/Payment, Commerce, Medical/Healthcare, Machine-to-Machine (M2M), Aggregation/Platforms, Environment/Ecology, and Security/Safety. As a result, DOCOMO expects to rapidly expand its involvement with integrated services centered on mobility.
The DOCOMO Innovation Fund will invest in promising startups and venture companies, primarily in Japan, that possess innovative business models or advanced services or technologies related to mobility and have the potential to be developed as all-new or upgraded offerings from parent DOCOMO.
Some of the investment targets are expected to come from the new DOCOMO Innovation Village incubation program, which will support startups and venture companies with resources and know-how, including office space and other infrastructure conducive to business development, and organize gatherings of company builders to hear presentations by expert corporate managers. Experts in various fields will be arranged to provide advice on management and development. The Village also will collaborate with domestic business incubators.
DOCOMO will establish an operating company to manage the DOCOMO Innovation Fund also by next March 31.
As DOCOMO proceeds with building up its portfolio of startups and venture companies in Japan, its existing U.S.-based subsidiaries DOCOMO Innovations, Inc. and DOCOMO Capital, Inc. will continue to coordinate similar investments and partnerships in North America.
New Investment Initiatives
1) DOCOMO Innovation Fund
| Establishment |
Within fiscal year ending in March 2013 |
| Investment targets |
| — |
Startups and venture companies in DOCOMO Innovation Village |
| — |
Startups and venture companies offering promising business models or advanced services/technologies |
|
| Assets |
10 billion yen (planned) |
| Period |
10 years (planned) |
2) DOCOMO Innovation Village
| Establishment |
Within fiscal year ending in March 2013 |
| Length of support |
3 or 4 months |
| Teams |
4 or 5 teams per program |
| Type of support |
| — |
Office space |
| — |
Advice on managerial, legal and financial matters |
| — |
Organize gatherings of company builders to hear presentations by expert corporate managers |
| — |
Mentoring by experts and DOCOMO service developers |
|
Existing Subsidiaries in North America
1) DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.
| Location |
California, USA |
| Business |
| — |
Promoting open innovation for creation of new technologies and services related to mobility |
| — |
Promoting research and development of promising mobile platform technologies |
|
| URL |
www.docomoinnovations.com |
2) DOCOMO Capital, Inc.
| Location |
California, USA |
| Business |
| — |
Investment in startups and venture companies with innovative state-of-the-art technology applicable to mobile communications services |
|
| URL |
www.docomo-capital.com |
- About NTT DOCOMO
- NTT DOCOMO is a world-leading integrated-services company centered on mobility. The company serves over 60 million mobile customers in Japan via advanced wireless networks, including a nationwide 3G network and one of the world’s first commercial LTE networks. Leveraging its unique capabilities as a mobile operator, DOCOMO is a leading developer of cutting-edge technologies for NFC mobile payments, mobile GPS, mobile TV, intuitive mobile assistance, environmental monitoring, smart grids and much more. Overseas, the company provides technical and operational expertise to eight mobile operators and other partner companies. NTT DOCOMO is listed on the Tokyo (9437), London (NDCM) and New York (DCM) stock exchanges. Please visit www.nttdocomo.com for more information.
