NTT Docomo, a Japan-based mobile phone operator, has formed a $125m incubator and corporate venturing fund for smartphone and tablet-related start-ups in its home country to complement its $100m fund in the US.
The launch of the Y10bn ($125m) Docomo Innovation Fund and Docomo Innovation Village incubation programme is expected by March 31.
The corporate venturing programme will help upgrade smart-device services and technologies in Docomo’s existing business units as well as develop business models, services and technologies in eight new strategic fields: media and content, finance and payment, commerce, medical and healthcare, machine-to-machine (M2M), aggregation and platforms, environment and ecology, and security and safety.
The fund is expected at least in part to back incubating companies from its Village, which will support start-ups and venture companies with office space and presentations by corporate managers
Docomo’s existing US-based subsidiaries, Docomo Innovations and Docomo Capital, will continue to coordinate similar investments and partnerships in North America.
The new fund comes as Eisuke Miki adds the role of chairman of Docomo Innovations in the US, a role held by Nobuyuki Akimoto for the past two years.
Docomo Capital in the US invests from its $100m fund in mobile and wireless start-ups and has a portfolio of about 24 investments.
Its most recent US deals include, the $14m investment in California-based Eye-Fi at the end of February.
Eye-Fi makes WiFi-compatible memory cards and as a result of the investment plans to integrate Docomo’s mobile personal cloud system with Eye-Fi’s View cloud service and multiplatform, instant photo/video uploading system. Docomo led the $20m series D round for Eye-Fi with its investment.
Docomo’s parent holding company, NTT, also operates a corporate venturing unit, NTT Investment Partners, from Japan, while NTT Communications manages a third unit as a separate subsidiary.