This year, April 1st was no joke! Instead, it marked the first day of operations for KDDI's newest addition to its corporate line-up - KDDI Spherience.
KDDI Spherience, LLC, based out of Plano, Texas, and with a newly created operations subsidiary in Stockholm, Sweden (KDDI Spherience AB) was established with the specific purpose of targeting global OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) in the Connected Vehicle space to drive revenues primarily from the non-Japanese automakers.
Hot off the press was the new entity's recent wins from the collective efforts of the team ahead of the official announcement, landing pivotal, flagship deals with a European OEM and Sony Honda Mobility worldwide with its recently announced Electric Vehicle – Afeela.
KDDI Spherience's vision is to create a world of meaningful connections by deep, vertical insights, industry-specific experience and excelling in building strong relationships with its ecosystem of partners and customers.
The nascent KDDI Spherience entity is hitting the ground running, building on an impressive track record of KDDI’s 20 years of successful operations in the connected field. KDDI has been providing Connected services since 2001, as M2M (Machine to Machine), or Telematics. Already back then, KDDI demonstrated its capability to manage tens of thousands of SIM cards, adapted to Smart Meters. The concept of “Connected Car” on a global basis was introduced in KDDI in 2019.
Working closely with a wide range of automobile manufacturers globally from PoC, Test, MVP to delivery, KDDI has built an impressive business portfolio of connected cars. A whopping 24 million connected cars to date, out of the 40 million total connections for the group.
In the words of KDDI Spherience CEO Yuichi Iwanaga, "KDDI Spherience will delight global OEMs by delivering exceptional service while acting as a trusted advisor and partner on their path towards the Software-defined Vehicle".
KDDI Spherience's novel approach ensures efficiency in both delivery and maintenance and capitalizes on the unique value propositions of its strong partner ecosystem. CEO Iwanaga again; "We're not selling a platform - we're selling value-added connectivity. Once the Customer realizes they also have access to the most powerful service platform in the industry - the opportunity for value-creation is endless!".