Innovation Kyoto 2016 Investment Limited Partnership ("KYOTO-iCAP No.1 Fund"), with Kyoto University Innovation Capital Corporation ("Kyoto iCAP") (Head Office: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; Representative Director: Koji Murota) as the general partner, has invested in Doki Doki, Inc. ("Doki Doki") (Head office: Delaware, U.S.A.; President: Takahito Iguchi), a venture company that utilizes research results from Kyoto University.

Doki Doki's investment in the company
Doki Doki is a venture based in San Francisco and Kyoto (Japan headquarters: Sakyo-ku, Kyoto) that develops and operates a new form of voice communication application. The app was launched for the U.S. market in October 2016, and is developing a unique product that uses asynchronous and volatile "chatter" as its core experience in the voice computing market, which is attracting increasing attention worldwide.

The company has also signed an academic guidance agreement with Kyoto University's Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies (Prof. Yuichi Nakamura, Director), and will receive advice on the implementation of various functions in the application and its potential use in various scenarios. In the initial stage, the company will start with a demonstration test of voice-based foreign language learning in the field of phonetics and linguistics, and will consider developing this into a joint research project to promote the evolution of voice communication through sentiment analysis and machine learning.

Kyoto iCAP is excited about the future of artificial intelligence communication and the potential for new industry-academia partnerships that can be created by feeding real data back into Kyoto University's research, as the global trend in computing interfaces shifts from keyboards to touch panels and voice. We have made a pre-seed investment of 50 million yen in anticipation of the potential for new industry-academia collaboration that will emerge from the feedback of real data to Kyoto University's research.

Outline of Doki Doki, Inc.

Establishment	June 25, 2014
Business	Development and operation of voice communication applications
Head Office Location	Delaware, USA
President & CEO	Takahito Iguchi