KDDI Open Innovation Fund invests in Soft Gear, an online game development company

Supporting rapid, effective game development with advanced technical capabilities

KDDI CORPORATION

March 31,2015

KDDI CORPORATION (hereafter KDDI; Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Takashi Tanaka) has made a capital investment in Soft Gear Co., Ltd. (hereafter Soft Gear) through the KDDI Open Innovation Fund, a corporate venture fund managed by Global Brain Corporation (Head office: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President: Yasuhiko Yurimoto).

Soft Gear is a company that develops online games that are compatible with a variety of platforms, including home video game consoles, personal computers, and smartphones. Soft Gears online game library [1] provides an environment that allows numerous simultaneous connections and comfortable operations, by enabling real-time server processing, high-speed network communications, and high-speed 3D graphics processing. Soft Gear also utilizes their technology and expertise accumulated through online game development to provide game development support aimed at improving quality. Since 2014, the company has offered game companies a debugging service that detects and resolves in-game issues for customers and developers.

In 2016, the smartphone market is projected to expand to approximately 820 billion yen [2]. As smartphone functions become more advanced and data communications increase in speed and volume, advanced technical capabilities are required to provide stable operation of servers and networks in the development of online games for smartphones. Soft Gear has the ability to leverage unique technical capabilities and support high-quality online game development and operations. Recognizing the company as a promising startup in the smartphone market, KDDI formed a capital alliance.

In the future, as IoT [3] technology continues to develop, KDDI expects Soft Gear to expand beyond smartphone games and apply their technical capabilities to the potential high-growth arena of communicating with and controlling a wide variety of small devices.

Moving forward, KDDI will continue to invest in promising startup companies with the aim of providing new value to customers.

[1]

Library refers to software that standardizes versatile programs and provides them as frequently used common processes and functions.

[2]

According to

Trends in Japanese Smartphone Game Market, a joint report produced by CyberZ, Inc. and Seed Planning, Inc. (in Japanese only)

[3]

IoT is an abbreviation of Internet of Things, which refers to the network of everyday objects (in addition to information/communication devices such as computers) that are embedded with technology that enables them to connect to the Internet, communicate with each other, and perform functions such as automatic recognition, automatic control, and remote monitoring.

For more details, see the Attachment.

Attachment KDDI Open Innovation Fund invests in Soft Gear, an online game development company

The information contained in the news releases is current at the time of publication. Products, service fees,service content and specifications, contact information, and other details are subject to change without notice.

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