NTT Docomo Ventures establishes a work space for its startups

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MG_8687See the original story in Japanese.

NTT Docomo Ventures [1], the incubation arm of Japan’s largest telco, unveiled its new office today, which features a co-working space and an event space for its startups.

The company launched an incubation program called Docomo Innovation village back in February. 124 startups initially applied for inclusion, and six teams of those made the cut for the first batch in April. The selected teams will receive grants of 2 million yen (approximately $20,000) each, as well as support in the form of work spaces and mentoring.

The participating teams explained their reasoning for applying to the program, citing Docomo’s successful investment in Evernote and possible partnerships opportunities with the telco as potential benefits of inclusion.

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Representatives of the 6 first batch teams

Regarding their experiences at the incubation program thus far, they say they have learned much from mentors, with lots of opportunities to reach other companies through Docomo’s business network, helping them learn more about app development. They are obliged to visit the office at least every Tuesday, where they have a meeting to share recent developments with each other.

These six teams will unveil the results of their six-month incubation program on Thursday, September 26th.

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  1. Previously known as Docomo Innovation Ventures, but it was rebranded on July 1st, 2013. ↩