GATEWAY TO JAPAN


DOCOMO Innovations collaborates with business partners, research laboratories, start-ups, and engineers in order to develop innovative products and services globally.

We exist as a gateway between Japan and Silicon Valley in the mobile market space to foresee and develop future opportunities through technology development, investment, and collaboration with our parent company.
About Us

DOCOMO Innovations is structured around 4 key teams, whose initiatives run the gamut from mobile applications to core networking technologies.

OUR GROUPS

01 AI & Data Analytics Innovation

The commoditization of products and the customer demand for individualized experiences will motivate a shift from product innovation to service innovation.

Service innovation must offer customers unique value propositions that differentiate with our competitors. Big data analytics will offer new possibilities for service innovation, and it will also revolutionize DOCOMO’s future. Big data analytics provides powerful methods and tools for analyzing and processing large amounts of data, enabling us to generate valuable insights by compiling and classifying our customers. These insights will support customer-oriented service innovation in a few ways.

Our group consists not only of data scientists, but also of various members with expertise ranging from wireless communication to cloud architecture. By working together, we can easily face cross-cutting challenges, share various experiences, and learn from each other. This combination will lead to new service innovations.

Finally, we will continue to work closely with DOCOMO Japan, local universities, and local companies. We will maintain a strong track record of academic publications and participate in international standards, such as 3GPP and IEEE.

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02 Open Innovation Strategy

Nowadays, we are facing a multitude of social issues such as lifestyle diseases, population ageing, education gap, depopulation, and so on. Our approach is to contribute to solving them with new technologies. We are not a specialist in any of these fields. The work we do wouldn’t be possible without collaborations. We are always open for everyone to seek opportunities to work with.

DOCOMO Innovations is the hub of open innovation activities that create new value and business opportunities for the NTT DOCOMO Group. We explore and develop partnerships with startups and educational institutions to commercialize these cutting-edge technologies and business models.

03 Product Planning & Strategy

The next opportunity for the Japanese market, the next product, the next partner, the next strategy, the next innovation, the next technology… the Product Planning & Strategy Group is always looking for who or what is next.

DOCOMO Innovations’ Product Planning & Strategy Group (PPSG) is driving business focus innovation through not only smartphone and tablet products, but also peripheral devices such as XR devices and wearable devices connected with smartphones and tablets for NTT DOCOMO. We have three missions:

  • Creation: creating software and products strategy for the Japanese market,
  • Operation: operating day-to-day, innovative activities related to mobile products, and
  • Innovation: to realize the strategy as products through operation and collaboration with a variety of partners and start-ups in the U.S.

The group here at DOCOMO Innovations, Inc. in Palo Alto is working closely with NTT DOCOMO HQ in Tokyo, Japan. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you are interested in working with us!

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04 Business Development

We help the best and most innovative startups in the US to enter the Japanese market with a leading technology and distribution partner.

The business development and investment group works with innovative startups to structure a commercial deal with NTT DOCOMO headquarters. To support a commercial deal, we provide strategic investment concurrently or for a future commercial collaboration. Our mission is to help startups enter or accelerate growth in the Japanese market. Our team of professionals will make relevant introductions and help structure the commercial deal, as well as the investment deal, if appropriate.

ABOUT US

CEO Message

CEO MESSAGE

Innovation is a chemical reaction of identities. The combination of each idea, vision, background, and resource leads to innovation fatefully or serendipitously. In the Silicon Valley, many start-up companies work to create fresh ideas based on this innovative thinking.

After twelve years of solely conducting research activities as DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc., “DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.” was established in August 2011. It was necessary for us to change the organization in order to enhance such “chemical reactions” with talented experts and start-ups from the Silicon Valley, reflecting the rapid change in the IT business market and the style of mobile technology. In October 2015, we merged with DOCOMO Capital, a CVC active locally since 2005, and as the new DOCOMO Innovations, have since been taking ample advantage of our Silicon Valley location.

We have four concurrent organizational functions, including AI & Data Analytics Innovations, Open Innovations Strategy, Product Planning & Strategy, and Business Development. Each group is able to fully communicate and exchange information, leading to synergy. Our mission is to take advantage of communicating and collaborating with business partners and engineers from other research laboratories in order to find triggers for global development of innovative products and services. It is also important to us to search the area thoroughly for possible business opportunities and react quickly to opportunities found. With all the functions of our company at our disposal, we strongly believe that we can create something innovative and contribute to the world’s keystone moments in mobile technology and business growth.

The Japanese market, the third-largest economy in the world (*1), is undergoing a rapid digital transformation of various industry sectors in this 5G era. By leveraging AI, IoT, xR and other advanced technologies via 5G, DOCOMO’s many partners are creating new solutions and business models solving problems faced by Japanese society. For instance, over 3,200 companies have joined in the DOCOMO 5G Open Partner Program, and over 300 PoC applications leveraging DOCOMO’s 5G network and edge-clouds have been created in the open-partner activities (*2). We also aim to enhance this transformation through researching advanced technologies with talented experts and collaborating with cutting-edge start-ups in the Silicon Valley. We’d be happy to impact Japanese society and economy through the innovation with you.

“Gateway to Japan.” We at DOCOMO Innovations are fully committed and excited to play this role.

Takashi Hara, President & CEO

*1 : Nominal GDP base
*2 : as of March, 2020

DOCOMO Innovations, Inc. is the Silicon Valley-based subsidiary of NTT DOCOMO, Inc. in Japan, a world leader in mobile operations and a growing provider of comprehensive mobile services. On August 1, 2011, DOCOMO Innovations was launched with an expanded mission for Open Innovation as an outgrowth of the last 10 years of cutting-edge technological research conducted at DOCOMO Communications Laboratories USA, Inc.

DOCOMO Innovations is more than a just an organization for business development and strategic investment. All groups within DOCOMO Innovations work together to realize new applications and services through collaboration with American companies for the next generation of mobile services and beyond. DOCOMO Innovations provides vital innovation to enable the future growth of NTT DOCOMO Inc. in the Japanese and Global Markets.

CONTACT

DOCOMO Innovations, Inc.

3301 Hillview Avenue
Palo Alto, CA 94304

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