<article>The California-based venture capital arm of Japan’s largest telco NTT Corporation has raised $500 million for its global investment fund.</article>

The California-based venture capital arm of Japan’s largest telco NTT Corporation has raised $500 million for its global investment fund.
NTT Venture Capital has also roped in former Norwest Venture Partners general partner Vab Goel as managing director, an SEC filing dated November 19 shows.
NTT Communications, a unit under NTT Corporation, had in 2013 acquired Goel-led, Norwest-backed cloud networking company Virtela in a $525-million cash deal.
In August 2018, NTT announced initiatives to grow its global business and drive innovation, including the plan to raise a $500-million global innovation fund to focus on digital technology investments.
“We&#8217;ve seen rapid progress in technology innovation; disruption caused by new business models, and the aggressive expansion of innovative competitors. These factors have led to clients&#8217; increasing demand for digital transformation. We believe it&#8217;s an opportunity for us to create new value and increase our presence in the global market,” the group said in a statement.
Under the restructuring scheme, it is establishing a new global holding company under NTT Corporation by the third quarter of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2019. NTT Communications, Dimension Data, NTT DATA, NTT Security and NTTi3 will be transferred to the new entity, NTT Inc.
Estimated operating revenue of NTT Inc is about $38 billion, with $20 billion already coming from outside Japan, the firm said.
Venture capital investments by NTT Corporation have been tasked to its NTT Docomo subsidiary, which had launched four funds totalling 50 billion yen ($444 million), as well as an incubation programme.
Meanwhile, NTT Communications is also hosting a competition for Southeast Asian startups, with winners already announced in Indonesia and Malaysia, and contenders set to make their pitches in Vietnam on November 22.

NTT Venture Capital has also roped in former Norwest Venture Partners general partner Vab Goel as managing director.

NTT Venture Capital raises $500m for global tech investments

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NTT Venture Capital raises $500m for global tech investments

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