Since 2018, Inagawa, a GCV Powerlist 2020 award winner, has overseen NTT's CVC unit.
Takayuki Inagawa, CEO of NTT Docomo Ventures, the corporate venture capital (CVC) arm of Japan-based telecommunication firm NTT Group’s mobile network subsidiary, NTT Docomo, will be promoted to general manager and head of innovation management department from Tuesday.
He said he would “resign the CEO position of NTT Docomo Ventures as of June 15…. On the same day on June 15, I am excited to join Docomo headquarters team. I will leave VC industry finally but still continue working on open innovation activities.”
Since 2018, Inagawa, a GCV Powerlist 2020 award winner, has overseen the development of innovative mobile communication services and products, partnering and collaborating with emerging companies that develop information and communications technology, big data, cloud and authentication security across all stages.
Founded in 2008, NTT Docomo Ventures has invested in more than 110 companies in a bid to accelerate innovation on behalf of the NTT Group. It seeks out cooperation opportunities with entrepreneurs globally by providing capital from its CVC vehicles and business development initiatives with NTT’s group companies.
Regarding the strategic partnerships with entrepreneurs, Inagawa said on NTT Docomo Ventures’ website: “We recently hear the buzz word ‘innovation’ many times in the business life. But the reality is that it is not easy to change something when you try to live with an innovative sense in a big company.
“One of the reasons is that the corporate culture of big companies is conservative. On the other hand, startups are established based on new rules, so they have more freedom to make something better. It seems to us that there would be a lot of synergies between big corporates and startups, but it is actually hard to find a good business relationship for them because of a lack of meetup opportunities.
“We are going to solve this issue – NTT Docomo Ventures has established a corporate venture fund promoting ‘collaborative creation’ and the ‘Docomo Innovation Village’, a program supporting business collaborations and startups, and organically coordinates them with the NTT Group, including NTT Docomo.
“With business development as the pillar of our activities, we will continue to create technology and service innovations not only in Japan but worldwide, and to work together to create new businesses and contribute to increasing revenues for NTT Docomo and the NTT Group.”
