OREANDA-NEWS. 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 Gear's 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.