June 16, 2021

KDDI Corporation

KDDI made an additional investment following the previous fund raising round in Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Jin Tomioka; hereinafter "TX"), a developer of remote-controlled and artificially intelligent robots, through KDDI Open Innovation Fund III (operated by Global Brain Corporation; hereinafter "KOIF III"), which aims to incubate new business co-creations with promising venture startups.

TX is the leading innovator in remote-controlled robots equipped with artificial intelligence which aims to build an Augmented Workforce Platform to achieve remote work participation and automation through artificial intelligence targeting tasks which have been difficult to uniformly automate such as product displays in retail stores and palletizing in the field of distribution.

• Reference video - https://youtu.be/xuiIKukMA2k

Last year, the KDDI Group provided communications technology support such as achieving video transmission with an ultra-low latency of 50 milliseconds with video transmission technology for remote-controlled robots that was jointly researched and developed by KDDI Research and TX [1]. Through this investment, KDDI will continue to provide technology and sales support for product development and market launches.

As "the company that customers feel closest to," KDDI will continue to promote business co-creation through investment in promising startup companies, and create new business models together with customers and partners.

(Reference)

• ■About Telexistence Inc.

  • (1)

    Company name: Telexistence Inc.

  • (2)

    Headquarters: 4-7-4 Harumi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo

  • (3)

    Founded: 2017

  • (4)

    Business activities: Development and provision of remote-controlled and artificially intelligent robots

  • (5)

    CEO: Jin Tomioka
    URL: https://tx-inc.com

• ■About KDDI Open Innovation Fund

  KDDI Open Innovation Fund is a corporate venture fund that supports a broad range of venture companies. The currently active KDDI Open Innovation Fund III focuses on areas of entertainment, home, IoT, big data, and Fintech with a total operating fund of 20 billion yen.

• [1]

  For details, refer to the KDDI Research press release (July 9, 2020).