Japanese companies turn to American methods and address new venture people and companies via carpet fundings.
NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Friday it will set up a venture fund to help start-up companies devise services and technologies that can be applied to its own operations.
DoCoMo will establish a 10 billion yen fund for investing in a wide range of fields, including the Internet, health care, finance and media, by March. The amount invested in each company will likely range from 100 million yen to 200 million yen, and the period for the fund will be 10 years. DoCoMo will set up a wholly owned subsidiary to manage the fund.
The firm will also institute a business incubation program. DoCoMo will pay development costs and provide office space and other infrastructure to promising projects. It will arrange for experts to give advice and help build sales networks, among other support.
Rival KDDI Corp. set up its own 5 billion yen venture fund in February to invest in Internet-related fields.
