Indian Open Innovation and Japanese Corporates: Towards the next phase of India-Japan Economic Partnership.

NEW DELHI: In its bid to assist Japanese corporations to understand the fast transforming business environment, emerging challenges induced by the pandemic in India, and utilize the evolving start-up eco-system to meet those challenges, the Beyond Next Ventures, a Japanese deep-tech Early stage startup fund has launched a 4-part webinar series – Indian Open Innovation and Japanese Corporates: Towards next phase of India-Japan Economic Partnership.

Starting November 24, the first of the webinar series – Open Innovation in India #1 will be the curtain-raiser event, which aims at answering the very conundrum the industry is facing, and how to integrate Indian Open Innovation with Japanese corporations for further growth.

The following webinars are likely to be organized in January, February, and March to commemorate the 70^th year of establishing India-Japan Diplomatic relationships.

This time, the elite panel includes top representatives from the Japanese government, industry, startup, and venture capitalists to give 360 views on the subject.

The panel during the November 24 session would have Shingo Miyamoto, Economic Minister of the Embassy of Japan, New Delhi; Noritaka Wakuda, Head, Digital Transformations, Maruti Suzuki; Shozo Kamiya, CEO of I’mBesideYou; and Tsuyoshi Ito, Founder & CEO, Beyond Next Ventures, a deep-tech Early stage startup fund with a deep commitment in investing in Indian Startups.

Mr. Miyamoto owns an impeccable command over the Hindi language and Indian Culture and is at the forefront of building constructive relationships between Japan and India.

Mr. Wakuda has contributed significantly to the business growth of Maruti Suzuki through the promotion of digital transformations. Mr. Kamiya, CEO of I’mBesideYou, an Emotional AI venture that established a subsidiary in India, is using India to globalize his product and market.

Mayur Shah, India Head, Business Development, Beyond Next Ventures, will be moderating the November 24 session.

It’s an open invitation for the Japanese companies established in India aspiring to expand their operations here, and also to those who are planning to invest anew in India but want to understand the fast-evolving business environment before taking their first step. Those interested can register for free and join the session at https://peatix.com/event/3049856/view The seminar will be conducted in Japanese.

According to a JETRO report, India has 1454 Japanese companies.

“For the last decade, we are seeing unprecedented interest from Japan in India due to the economic scale and demographic dividend. According to the Japan Center for Economic Research, India is expected to be third in the world economic rankings by 2029. Notwithstanding the pandemic, 33 unicorns are born in 2021 itself. After the United States and China, India is the third-largest startup country,” said Mayur Shah, India Head, Business Development, Beyond Next Ventures.

He said that in India, where about 50% of the total population of 1.3 billion is under 30 years old, experts believe that this young energy will be the driving force of the Indian economy for the next 20 years by innovating bringing disruptive solutions.

For Japanese corporations seeking a winning formula in India, however, they feel stagnancy in the traditional way of doing business. On the other hand, there is a new energy in India, which is growing leaps and bounds. The bulk of Indian startups are trying to solve the business or social problems they feel are relevant in the Indian context.

Thanks to the pandemic situation, the way the industry interacts with employees, customers, and suppliers is going through a transformation.

Mayur Shah said, “We want to encourage Japanese companies to look at these phenomena. And how we are doing it is by giving them examples of the fellow corporates.”

“By series of these webinars, we are bringing experts who are striving in integrating Open Innovations in their own companies and in a dynamic panel discussion to bring to the fore challenges and advantages of integrating Indian start-up to improve an existing business in India.

As a fund we are here to help corporates with DX consulting should they wish to take a step forward,” Mr. Shah added.

Registration link to join the session: https://peatix.com/event/3049856/view

About Mayur Shah: 

With an overall experience of 25 years in Finance and IT R&D services, Mayur is an expert in India-Japan business relations. Having native-level command over the Japanese language in all three forms, he has facilitated the entry and expansion of hundreds of Japanese companies in India. Alongside incubating many new initiatives for growth in India, he led the think-tank division at Japanese Mega bank for over 12 years where he also spearheaded active investment and collaboration between Japanese Corporates and Indian Companies and Startups. He helped several Japanese Corporate houses in forming opinions on investment opportunities in start-ups through qualitative and quantitative research analysis.

At Beyond Next Ventures, Mayur is heading Business Development activities in India, looking for increased cooperation among Corporates, Academia, and Institutes with Indian and Japanese Open Innovation Ventures.

He pursued his Masters’s in International Economics from the Yokohama City University, Japan. Besides Japanese and English, he is fluent in Hindi and Gujarati.

日本語要約 (イベント登録リンク：https://peatix.com/event/3049856/view)

OpenInnovation in India #1　インドでオープンイノベーションを実現することの利点と課題について「インドでのオープンイノベーション」に焦点を当て、官・民・スタートアップ・VCという360度の視点で、日本企業のインド市場への参入・事業拡大へのヒントを探るウェビナーシリーズ「OpenInnovation in India」を開催します！

なぜインドなのか？

日本企業にとってその経済規模と人的コストの安さから魅力的なインド市場。日本経済研究センターによれば、2029年にはインドが世界の経済ランキングにおいて3位になると予想されています。

また、パンデミック下においても2021年にはユニコーンが33社も誕生。アメリカ、中国に次ぎ、スタートアップ大国第3位となりました。総人口13億人のうち約5割が30歳以下ともいわれるインドにおいて、向こう20年はこの若いエネルギーがインド経済の原動力になると専門家は見ています。

そんなとどまることを知らない勢いのインドですが、ウィズコロナ時代において現地のビジネス環境は急速に変化しています。その中で、今後いかにしてインドでの事業を拡大させていくべきか悩まれている日本企業も少なくありません。

そこで、「OpenInnovation in India」シリーズ第1回目は、

• 約8年に渡りマルチ・スズキのDX推進を通じてその事業成長に大きく貢献している和久田様
• 日印間の関係構築に従事され、ヒンディー語がネイティブ並みにお上手(!)なインド大使館の宮本公使
• インドに子会社を設立し、現地の人材を活用しながらそのAI技術のグローバル展開に挑むアイムビサイドユーCEOの神谷様

をスペシャルゲストに迎え、日本企業のインド市場への参入及び事業拡大のためのオープンイノベーション活用における利点と課題について、それぞれの視点から議論します！

さらに、本イベントの主催者であり、インドスタートアップへの投資と現地日本企業とのエコシステム構築に挑むBeyond Next Ventures 代表取締役 伊藤も登場します！

以下に該当する方はぜひご参加ください！

✔インドに進出してはいるが、その後の事業のスケールに悩んでいる方

✔現地ネットワークをどのように拡げたらいいか模索されている方

✔インドでのオープンイノベーションに興味がある方

✔現地のスタートアップと繋がりたい方