NTT DOCOMO Ventures Invests in SOLAIRO

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Takayuki Inagawa; hereinafter, “NDV”) has invested in SOLAIRO, Inc. (hereinafter, “SOLAIRO”), a web-based customer service solution provider, through a fund managed by NDV.

SOLAIRO is a venture company that has developed and is providing the OK SKY and web-based customer service solutions. The OK SKY enables users to deal with their customers on the Internet by incorporating text-based chat and other messaging services in communications with customers. SOLAIRO has collected over 40 million effective conversations through its services since 2014, and it has realized digital customer services by combining its AI chat bot, which can provide highly accurate answers by using the conversation log data, with human operators. By introducing the OK SKY, users can interact with each online shopping customer in a personalized way and recommend products for customers through chats or provide necessary support for purchases. Furthermore, at physical shops, the OK SKY is increasingly being used for the purpose of providing multi-language services for foreign tourists or covering the shortage of salespersons.

According to the FY2018 Survey of Infrastructure Development Status for Data-driven Society in Japan (E-Commerce Market Survey)*, which was announced by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry on May 16, 2019, the scale of the domestic B-to-C EC (business-to-consumer e-commerce) market expanded to 18.0 trillion yen in 2018, and the computerization of commercial transactions is expected to progress further in the future. NDV is focusing attention on the area of conversational commerce, and if smartphone users increasingly use chat services at physical stores, in addition to e-commerce shopping, they are expected to be able to enjoy wider shopping experiences across online and offline boundaries and e-commerce is expected to expand further. Therefore, NDV has decided to invest in SOLAIRO, which is promoting digital transformation together with various domestic companies, mainly those in the apparel and retail industries, and has accumulated know-how on online customer services.

From now on, NDV will promote linkage between SOLAIRO’s services and NTT DOCOMO’s services and will support activities such as joint creation of new services by the two companies. By promoting digital transformation, NDV will make further efforts to create new values.

*https://www.meti.go.jp/english/press/2019/0516_003.html