NTT DOCOMO Ventures Invests in Fez Inc., which Supports Retail DX using In-store Purchase Data

NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Jun Yasumoto; hereinafter, “NDV”) is pleased to announce that, through a fund that it manages, it has invested in FEZ Inc. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Representative Director and CEO: Jumpei Itami; hereinafter “FEZ”), which uses in-store purchase data and other information to support digital transformation (DX) in retail.

FEZ is a startup working on DX for the retail industry, including retailers and manufacturers. It has developed Urumo, a retail data platform that integrates, manages, and analyzes various types of data, including purchase data, in-store data, and sales promotion data, and provides solutions for appropriate data-based advertising strategies, optimization of product stocking operations, and optimal sales floor planning.

FEZ has established partnerships with approximately 340 brands from major manufacturers and approximately 9,460 retail stores, mainly belonging to major drugstores, and has coordinated ID-POS*1 data for approximately 100 million IDs, one of the largest such collections in Japan.

As changes in consumer behavior and an increasingly diverse range of customer needs make it more necessary than ever to develop and execute data-driven sales strategies and verify their effectiveness, FEZ will harness this data to help many retailers and manufacturers achieve DX in retail.

In connection with this investment, NTT DOCOMO, INC. (hereinafter “DOCOMO”) signed a business alliance agreement with FEZ, and on Wednesday, October 25, 2023, began offering the “DOCOMO Retail DX Program,”*2 which supports marketing DX for retailers and manufacturers in collaboration with the company and other partners.

By exploring further cooperation and collaboration with FEZ, with its advanced data management capabilities that integrate and manage ID-POS data and other various types of information, DOCOMO aims to provide new services and create new businesses that support retail DX.

■Fez Inc. Profile
Name: FEZ Inc.
Head Office: Grand First Kanda-Konyacho 3F, 15 Kanda-Konyacho, Chiyoda, Tokyo
Representative: Jumpei Itami, Representative Director and CEO
Areas of Business: Retail media business (business related to DX in the retail industry), etc.
Website: https://fez-inc.jp/

*1: The ID-POS data coordinated by Fez is available for use if permission is obtained from individual retailers.
*2: NTT DOCOMO press release “Launch of ‘DOCOMO Retail DX Program’”
https://www.docomo.ne.jp/info/news_release/2023/10/25_00.html