Marketing firm Dentsu, mobile network operator NTT Docomo and financial services firm Tokyo Century agreed yesterday to invest up to ¥22.6bn ($211m) in Japan-based on-demand ride service Mobility Technologies (MoT).
The funding forms part of a strategic partnership deal that will involve Dentsu providing $9.3m and Tokyo Century $14.7m. NTT Docomo is set to inject up to $187m, half of which is dependent on MoT exercising a capital call option, and the full amount would take MoT’s total funding to roughly $369m.
Taxi operator Nihon Kotsu founded MoT in 1977 as Nikko Keisan Centre (later Nikko Data Service), and its primary focus was on providing taximeter software. It rebranded to Zenkoku Taxi in 2011 as it pivoted to offering a ride hailing app.
The company changed its name to JapanTaxi in 2015 before becoming an equity-method affiliate of internet company DeNA and agreeing to eventually integrate its app with the latter’s mobility-as-a-service platform, MOV, in February this year.
MoT had secured $13.5m from Kakao Mobility, a ride hailing spinoff of South Korea-based internet company Kakao, in September 2018, two months after NTT Docomo had provided it with $20.3m in funding.
Mirai Creation Investment, a vehicle formed by carmaker Toyota, bank Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and asset manager Sparx Group, invested a further $9.8m in February 2018, with Toyota itself also putting up $68.9m the same month.
Mirai Creation Fund had already provided $4.5m for MoT in June 2017 that was followed by an additional $890,000 from an unnamed taxi operator four months later.
