NTT Docomo Ventures (NDV), the corporate venturing unit of Japan-based NTT’s mobile phone operator, has raised Y15bn ($115m) for its third fund.
Docomo Innovation Fund III’s limited partners are NTT Docomo and NTT Finance. NDV’s prior funds closed at Y10bn and Y15bn in 2013 and 2017, respectively.
The third fund will continue to support Japanese and international startups and promote collaboration with Docomo companies.
In an interview for GCV’s innovative region feature published last month, Yuko Sasahara-Watanabe, president and chief executive of NTT Docomo Ventures since last summer when Tak Inagawa moved to general manager, identified two challenges within the Japanese CVC industry.
She said: “First, a lack of open innovation culture on the part of large corporations. It is culturally difficult for startups to collaborate with them. I think that because Japanese companies have mainly employed people for life so far and there is little diversity of people within the company, communication with a diverse range of people outside the company has not been developed well.
“Second, by thinking about synergies from a relatively short-term perspective, it is possible to collaborate in the immediate future, but it is not likely to result in innovative business creation or trigger a major societal change a little further down the line.
“This is because corporate top management team often changes in a short time and the policies also change as a result, and there is also a lot of turnover on the CVC side in terms of management and investment teams.
“I believe it is necessary for business companies, startups and CVCs to consider business concepts and stories of social change from a long-term perspective and walk hand-in-hand to create a meaningful social impact.”
Picture of Yuko Sasahara Watanabe from LinkedIn
