NTT Group Launches First Overseas Startup Collaboration Program: "NTT Startup Challenge"
～Aiming to Foster New Business Ventures Through Startup Partnerships in Southeast Asia～

News Highlights:

TOKYO - July 29, 2024 - NTT Corporation (Headquarters: Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo; Representative Member of the Board and President: Akira Shimada, hereinafter "NTT") has announced the launch of the "NTT Startup Challenge," the first joint startup collaboration program by the NTT Group. This program invites startups interested in working with the NTT Group from all over Southeast Asia to participate in a Pitch Contest, which will be held as the NTT Startup Challenge Final Day on November 14, 2024, in Jakarta.

Participating companies from the NTT Group include NTT East, NTT West, NTT DOCOMO GLOBAL, NTT Communications, NTT Data, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, and NTT Finance. Additionally, notable venture capital firms from Southeast Asia, such as KK Fund and GDP Venture, along with Professor Akie Iriyama from Waseda University, will participate as keynote speakers and judges.

Through this program, NTT Group aims to foster new business ventures by collaborating with startups within the Southeast Asian ecosystem and other international markets.

1. Background:

NTT Group aims to create new value through the resolution of social issues. To achieve this goal, we believe that we can discover a variety of issues and resolve them by collaborating with a number of startups that identify social issues and work to resolve them, and by promoting collaboration utilizing NTT Group's assets.

Especially Southeast Asia, comprising 11 countries with a population of approximately 700 million¹, is a vast market experiencing significant economic growth despite numerous social challenges. For startups, addressing these challenges presents significant business opportunities. Consequently, Southeast Asia is increasingly recognized by Japanese companies as a hub for innovation rather than merely a production base for the manufacturing industry.

From 2017 to 2020, NTT Communications operated the "NTT Com Startup Challenge," a program aimed at promoting collaboration with startups in Southeast Asia. This program attracted over 3,300 startups, contributing to new business creation through Pitch Contests and Matching Events.

Recognizing the maturity of the Southeast Asian startup ecosystem and the enthusiasm for new business development across the NTT Group in the region, we are expanding our collaboration efforts by launching the first-ever jointly hosted startup collaboration program, the "NTT Startup Challenge."

2. NTT Startup Challenge Program Details:

3. NTT Startup Challenge Final Day:

4. Future Developments:

Participating NTT companies aim to create new business ventures in Southeast Asia through collaboration with potential winners and finalists from NTT Startup Challenge Final Day. For startups interested in expanding to Japan, NTT Group companies are prepared to offer support. Additionally, we aim to broaden this program to other countries in Southeast Asia and the Global South, exploring various initiatives.

5. Endorsements

○ Ricky Willianto, Co-founder of Ravenry (NTT Com Startup Challenge 2018 Winner)

"NTT Startup Challenge has helped Ravenry open many doors especially while we were in our early stages. NTT Startup Challenge helped us access the Japanese market, providing us with insights and business matching opportunities. As a result of that, we very quickly managed to acquire several long-term Japanese organisations as clients. NTT Startup Challenge has continued to engage Ravenry with valuable collaboration and networking opportunities since we participated in 2018. We are proud participants of the program, and look forward to continuing our relationship with NTT as we grow our business."

○ Brendan Rakphongphairoj, CIO at Mekari (NTT Com Startup Challenge Partner)

"As a trusted partner of NTT, Qontak since 2017 has been able to leverage NTTs company ecosystem, a wide network of enterprise connections and a number of customers. We sincerely thank NTT for joint go-to market support over the years and for more collaborations in the future. The NTT startup challenge was especially helpful and the pinnacle of our working relationship having bridged over 400 tech companies to jointly collaborate and cross sell."

¹Source: IMF (International Monetary Fund), 2024
Population (Millions of people) in Southeast Asia: 685.75M

About NTT

NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and businesses as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $97B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.