Dentsu Group Inc. and ISID Establish Dentsu Innovation Studio Inc. as a Joint Venture in San Francisco

JV with Software Engineering at Its Core to Support Innovation and Business Development

Dentsu Group Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Toshihiro Yamamoto; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen; hereinafter “the company”) and Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd. (President: Ryoichi Nawa; Head Office: Tokyo; hereinafter “ISID”) announced today the establishment of Dentsu Innovation Studio Inc., a joint venture in San Francisco, USA. The new company takes over the business of the San Francisco office of ISID’s subsidiary ISI-Dentsu of America, Inc. (President & CEO: Shinsuke Sano; Head Office: New York, USA; hereinafter “ISID America”) and supports collaborative business development utilizing software engineering as its core offering.

To date, the Dentsu Group has been promoting open innovation by investing in startups worldwide, and developing business with the companies in which it has invested through Dentsu Innovation Initiative (hereinafter “DII”), an R&D organization in the company’s subsidiary Dentsu Inc. (President & CEO: Hiroshi Igarashi; Head Office: Tokyo), and Dentsu Ventures Global Fund I (hereinafter “Dentsu Ventures”), the company’s corporate venture capital fund. With its San Francisco office as a central base, ISID America has been partnering with Japanese enterprises that have R&D bases in Silicon Valley, where leading technology companies are concentrated, to support research and development utilizing cutting-edge technologies. Dentsu Innovation Studio Inc. has been established to accelerate the business development of its clients by combining the Group’s client networks, investment functions, venture capital fund, startups, and the technical and development capabilities of ISID.

Dentsu Innovation Studio Inc.’s mission is to create a new business that utilizes cutting-edge technologies together with its clients in cooperation with DII, Dentsu Ventures, and ISID, bridging the gap between Silicon Valley companies and Japanese companies. The new company has professional teams in various fields such as business development, design, software engineering, and data analysis. Each team will play a central role in researching technology and business trends, sourcing local collaborative partners, developing apps and web services that can become the core of the business, and focusing on software product design, prototyping, and minimum viable product (MVP) development. Going forward, the new company will provide consistent support as a business partner, fostering growth that puts data-based programmatic development into practice.

Profile of the new company

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Contacts:
Dentsu Group Inc.
Group Corporate Communications Office
Telephone: +81 3-6217-6602
E-mail: group-cc@dentsu-group.com

Information Services International-Dentsu, Ltd. (ISID)
Corporate Communications Office
E-mail: g-pr@isid.co.jp

Dentsu Innovation Studio Inc.
E-mail: info@dentsu-innovations.com