Yahoo Finance

- Gaining strategic benefits from leading global technologies by becoming a startup customer -

TOKYO, October 10, 2024--(BUSINESS WIRE)--OKI (TOKYO: 6703) is adopting the venture client model ("VCM"), which is currently gaining traction in Europe and the US, to promptly provide solutions to increasingly complex social issues—an approach taken as part of OKI’s efforts to rapidly incorporate leading global technologies into its business operations. Having established processes and an internal organization to implement VCM, the company has now begun working with 27pilots Deloitte GmbH (Head office: Munich, Germany; CEO: Gregor Gimmy).

Engaged in global open innovation initiatives since May 2024 (Note 1), OKI recently launched a venture client unit (Note 2) in collaboration with 27pilots to promote the use of VCM with the goal of accelerating these activities and achieving sustainable growth.

Traditional models of working with startups—investment and acceleration—have faced various challenges, including the low rate of success of such collaborations with startups. VCM addresses these issues by allowing a company to become a customer of the startup, and to be directly involved in strategic problem-solving, in order to gain strategic benefits. Directly purchasing and evaluating the products of startups minimizes the risks and costs associated with intellectual property negotiations, which are often obstacles in such endeavors, and accelerates decision-making. VCM uses standardized processes to eliminate factors that typically hinder joint efforts with startups, enabling rapid processing of large-volume transactions.

Adopting VCM to implement a range of leading technologies strategically, directly, and rapidly will allow OKI to quickly test, effectively evaluate, and integrate leading global technologies into its operations. This makes it possible for OKI to conduct open innovation activities efficiently, and rapidly and reliably obtain broad-based strategic benefits from limited resources.

In its Technology Strategy announced in November 2023, OKI proposed the Edge Platform (Note 3) as a technology concept for swiftly providing solutions to address social issues, and the acceleration of open innovation activities via VCM is vital to the realization of this concept. According to Executive Officer Kurato Maeno, who also serves as Chief Technology Officer and Head of Technology Division: "By continuously and efficiently incorporating global technological innovations into its business through VCM, OKI aims to provide rapid solutions to increasingly complex social issues."