NTT DOCOMO Ventures Invests in aiQ that Offers Investment Information Service using AI - Accelerating collaboration on sophistication of Mobile Spatial Statistics utilizing deep learning -

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO, Takayuki Inagawa, hereinafter called NDV) invested in aiQ Co., Ltd. (hereinafter called aiQ), a startup that offers next generation investment information through big data analysis by using AI/deep learning technology on Wednesday, March 27, 2019.
　
aiQ was established by members who were at the forefront of AI utilization for investment in a major financial institution in 2018. It is a startup that provides institutional investors who invest in Japan’s shares with investment information through the analysis of big data, including location information, POS data, SNS, and other alternative data sources¹. Mr. Yamamoto, a representative of aiQ, co-developed and announced “SNS × AI Business Confidence Index,” a new economic indicator that analyzes SNS with deep learning in his previous job with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. He has been working on big data use in the area of investment.

“aiQ Geolocation,” an investment information service provided by aiQ, predicts current corporate activities such as the degree of congestion at stores based on Mobile Spatial Statistics® offered by DOCOMO InsightMarketing, INC. (hereinafter called DIM). This service enables the highly accurate and real-time analysis of the state of corporate activities by breaking down different population projections into detailed categories such as residents or commuters by time at a point. Such analysis is achieved through the cutting-edge deep learning possessed by aiQ that focuses attention on the movements of people related to the subject companies.

Mobile Spatial Statistics provides demographic information estimates by time/area based on the operational data of DOCOMO’s mobile network². DIM estimates 24-hour, 365-day population from a large quantity of samples of some 78 million units for domestic residents³ and some 9 million units for foreign people visiting Japan⁴. Thus, the Mobile Spatial Statistics service enables a survey of demographics corresponding to diverse use and has been supporting the sophistication of the society in a wide variety of fields such as transportation planning, tourism promotion, and store support.

DIM has been discussing the potential of big data analysis by deep learning through provision of the Mobile Spatial Statistics to aiQ. Through the investment by NDV, both DIM and aiQ are determined to jointly discuss moving toward the increasing sophistication of analysis of people’s flow and prediction services that the Mobile Spatial Statistics offers.

Going forward, we will commit ourselves to innovation through Mobile Spatial Statistics with a wide range of partners including startups and facilitate new service creation as well as the resolution of social issues through the use of big data.

1 Non-traditional data sets used by institutional investors to obtain insight for the investment.
2 Population estimates that are based on operational data, including location and attribute data necessary to provide DOCOMO’s mobile phone services and cannot be identified individually.
3 Estimate excluding contract data of corporate subscribers (As of March 2019).
4 Actuals for 2018.
Note: “Mobile Spatial Statistics” is a registered trademark of NTT DOCOMO, INC.

Company Overview
Overview of “aiQ Geolocation” (In Japanese)