To accelerate innovation, Hitachi is pursuing various new initiatives such as the establishment of the Corporate Venture Capital Fund (1) in June 2019. Engaging with the startup community, Hitachi held a “reverse pitch” event on Wednesday, 11 December 2019, to share its business direction with startup companies. A “reverse pitch” is where a potential sponsor corporation pitches business models and challenges to startup companies to receive solution proposals; the "reverse" of where startups pitch their business models to potential sponsor corporations. The detail of the event is as follows:
On Wednesday, 11 December 2019, a “Startup Reverse Pitch” event was held at the Central Research Laboratory, Hitachi, Ltd. (Kyōsō-no-Mori (2) ) organized by the Corporate Venturing Office, Financial Institutions Business Unit, Research & Development Group of Hitachi, Ltd. and Plug and Play Japan. The event was attended by 26 participants from 22 startups in and outside of Japan. The participants held further discussion on opportunities for collaboration based on each business proposal. The event spurred active discussion and was well received by both Hitachi and the startup companies.
Building on the success of this event where the startup companies were able to gain a deeper understanding of Hitachi’s business vision, another event will be held on Friday, 24 January 2020, where startup companies will propose their business solutions to Hitachi.
