NTT is launching the “NTT Startup Challenge,” the first joint startup collaboration promotion program with the NTT Group. As part of the program, startups interested in collaborating with the NTT Group will be recruited from throughout Southeast Asia, and a pitch contest will be held on November 14th in Jakarta as the NTT Startup Challenge Final Day.
From the NTT Group, NTT East, NTT West, NTT docomo global, NTT Communications, NTT Data, NTT Docomo Ventures, and NTT Finance will participate in the program. Also participating from outside the NTT Group are Southeast Asian venture capital firms KK Fund and GDP Venture, and Professor Akira Iriyama of Waseda University, who will be giving keynote speeches and serving as judges.
Yasutaka Kinebuchi, general manager of NTT Global Division, explains, “This is a program aimed at creating new businesses with overseas startups. Applications began on June 1, and about 300 startups have applied so far. We expect 400 to 500 companies to apply by the deadline in early September.”

The NTT Group has partnered with a well-known VC in Southeast Asia since April this year to promote open innovation with overseas startups, and they have been providing advisory programs for the NTT Group.

Through the Startup Collaboration Promotion Program, the company hopes to enter the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem, find promising partners and investment opportunities, and promote human resource development.

Kinebuchi says, “Southeast Asia also has geopolitical and cultural affinity. It is a region that is very high priority when NTT’s business companies enter the global market and challenge new businesses.”

In fact, NTT Group companies are eager to expand their business into Southeast Asia.
NTT East, for example, is pursuing a new business venture in Vietnam through its subsidiary NTT E-Asia.
NTT West is also considering expanding some of its domestic operations into Southeast Asia.

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