NEC Corporation has introduced the Africa Corporate Innovation Program to increase its cooperation with startups across the African continent. The scheme focuses on tackling social issues such as food security and agricultural productivity. This new initiative adds to the company’s existing global accelerator and is being delivered alongside the UK-based Shell Foundation and venture capital firm Double Feather Partners (DFP).
The program will identify startups capable of solving local challenges to participate in proof-of-concept projects. These trials will use NEC’s “CropScope” platform to improve farming technologies and logistics from farms to markets. Following the launch this month, demonstration projects will run through December 2026. A final evaluation of the results is planned for March 2027 to decide on long-term commercial partnerships.
Masayuki Furukawa, Director at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), said: “JICA has been continuously conducting cooperation in collaboration with private-sector partners with the aim of strengthening startup ecosystems in Africa and enhancing collaboration between African and Japanese companies. This initiative holds significant value where it leverages the experience and knowledge accumulated through the Next Innovation with Japan (NINJA) project promoted by JICA, with the expectation of contributing further to Africa’s economic development. JICA supports the idea that private companies take the lead in addressing social challenges in Africa and building mutually beneficial relationships. Furthermore, JICA hopes that this initiative will encourage more Japanese companies to participate in similar efforts, thereby further expanding collaboration between startups in Japan and Africa. JICA will continue its cooperation through Project NINJA and will support promoting initiatives of this kind going forward.”
Jonathan Berman, CEO of Shell Foundation, said: “Raising incomes for people on low incomes while supporting a low carbon pathway requires more than good ideas – it requires partnerships that bring together capital, technology and local entrepreneurial expertise. Through the Africa Corporate Innovation Program, Shell Foundation is using catalytic funding to reduce the risk of collaboration and, together with our partner Double Feather Partners, help global corporates like NEC work alongside African startups to test, learn and build solutions that can scale and evolve into sustainable business partnerships. Our role is to make these partnerships possible, prove what works in practice and help unlock much larger flows of capital into inclusive, climate-smart markets.”
Kohei Muto, Representative Director and CEO of Double Feather Partners, said: “Social challenges in Africa should no longer be viewed merely as development issues; they represent the frontier of one of the world’s fastest-evolving innovation markets. This program serves as an implementation platform that connects the technological strengths of Japanese companies with the field-driven innovation capabilities of African startups. DFP will design and support mechanisms that connect PoC initiatives to investment opportunities and business scale-up, maximizing NEC’s business expansion and social impact creation in Africa. In collaboration with the Shell Foundation, DFP will also support the development of sustainable business models from the perspectives of impact investment and blended finance. Through this initiative, we aim to build a new co-creation model between Japan and Africa, enabling a seamless pathway from demonstration projects to capital linkage and ultimately to business value creation.”
NEC is currently presenting the details of this project at the SusHi Tech Tokyo 2026 conference. The company stated that the program is part of a broader “NEC Open Innovation” strategy to create new social value through global partnerships.
