July 7, 2023

KDDI Corporation

KDDI made an additional investment in Telexistence Inc. (Headquarters: Chuo-ku, Tokyo; 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 a robotics company that develops remote-controlled and artificially intelligent robots, as well as business operations that utilize these robots. The company conducts extensive in-house development of hardware, software, AI, and remote control technology, and is already expanding the deployment of its robots to retail stores.

In July 2020, the KDDI Group provided communications technology support such as achieving video transmission with an ultra-low latency of 50 milliseconds through video transmission technology for remote-controlled robots, which 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.

• ■About Telexistence Inc.

  • (1)

    • Company name

      : Telexistence Inc.

  • (2)

    • Location

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

  • (3)

    • Representative

      : CEO Jin Tomioka

  • (4)

    • Founded

      : January 2017

  • (5)

    • Business activities

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

  • (6)

    • URL

      : https://tx-inc.com/en/home/

• ■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 the areas of AI, IoT, data marketing, fintech, B2B SaaS, and entertainment with a total operating fund of 20 billion yen.

• [1]

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