“PoliPoli”, which delivers voices to politics, raises funds from 3 telecommunications carriers. What is the 24-year-old CEO’s big project?

Founding member of PoliPoli. From the left, CXO Jinta Yamada, CEO Kazuma Ito, and CTO Takashige Kurata.

On February 2, 2023, PoliPoli, which operates a policy proposal platform that connects politics/administration and the public, announced Series A funding from NTT DoCoMo Ventures and KDDI Open Innovation Fund No. 3. The cumulative amount raised so far is said to be “several hundred million yen.”

PoliPoli will be from Z Venture Capital of Z Holdings in May 2022fundraisingand fund procurement has been realized from the three major domestic carrier groupsI did.

PoliPoli has also partnered with the Open Philanthropy Foundation, which is primarily funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz.Started a project to nurture “next-generation rulemakers”bottom.

Kazuma Ito, 24, CEO of PoliPoli, said, “It’s been five years since our founding. The project we’ve been dreaming about has finally started.”

Competing carrier group participates in “symbolic procurement”

Career photo

“It is symbolic that we were able to raise funds from three groups that were originally competitors. What we are working on is to transcend conventional frameworks and fundamentally change society.

in that senseThe cooperation of three groups engaged in highly public projects was a great achievement.I think so.” (CEO Ito)

Polypoly was founded in February 2018. It was founded by Mr. Ito, who was a student at Keio University.

Currently, it mainly operates “PoliPoli”, where politicians post policies, and “PoliPoli Gov (β version)”, which consults citizens about issues faced by local governments. “PoliPoli Gov (β version)” also attracted attention because it was adopted by the Digital Agency and the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

“According to the survey, 66% feel that their voices are not being reflected in politics. As our services have become known, we believe that we have been able to create a new mechanism to deliver our voices to politics.

Finally, we have become a 30-person organization, including outsourcing. In order to expand our activities,I want to involve more stakeholders”

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Along with the funding announced this time, we have also signed a memorandum of understanding on collaboration with both the Docomo Group and KDDI.

The DoCoMo Group has already introduced PoliPoli Gov (β version) as a mechanism to solve regional issues in the Miyagi Prefecture digital promotion project handled by NTT Communications.

PoliPoli will continue to use its networks with companies as a foothold to accelerate introduction in local governments.

I want to create a mechanism to change the “rules”

Until now, PoliPoli has consistently carried out activities to deliver citizens’ voices to politics and administration, but it has also launched a new business.

The Reach Out Project is a big project to train “rulemakers” who can change the rules of society.

PoliPoli will be published in the morning edition of the Asahi Shimbun on January 23, 2023“From Japan, we are looking for young people who will take on the challenge of changing the world.”A full-page advertisement was posted.

In this “Reach Out Project”, participants are recruited under the theme of global health, and they are responsible for everything from making actual policy proposals to providing financial support.

About 5 teams will be selected from the applicants. The selected participants will spend four months clarifying their vision, undergoing overseas training to learn about public health in India and other countries, and brushing up policy proposals and public relations strategies.

When recruitment started in late January, applications were gathered from young researchers, young researchers involved in policy proposals, and students involved in NPO and NGO activities.

Leverage on investments, not donations

Ito-san

Mr. Ito responded to the interview online.

The feature of “Reach Out Project” is the extravagance of the support group.

Co-hosted by the Open Philanthropy Foundation, funded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz. The Open Philanthropy Foundation will provide funding and other support to participants.

The project is also backed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, according to the project’s website.

“This project aims toChanging the world through policy proposals rather than supporting activities through donationsam. I also have experience working in VCs, but I believe that investing in rule-making will allow us to achieve leveraged results, such as changing rules and national budgets.” (CEO Ito)

“In Japan, it is not uncommon for NGOs and NPOs that carry out valuable activities to be in trouble with funding for their activities.In order to change reality, the first and foremost effective means is to create new rules in politics and administration.will be

There are many initiatives to support entrepreneurs, but so far there has been no scheme to support rule-making. I believe that this system is the ‘new political and administrative system’ that we have set as our mission.”

“I want to expand the scheme.”

Service screen

PoliPoli has created a system to change society with the voice of citizens. When I opened PoliPoli Gov (beta version), I found that people’s voices were collected in various fields.

This time, in partnership with a global foundation, we launched the first project with the theme of global health.“I would like to spread this scheme to change society with this investment in various issues.”said Mr. Ito enthusiastically.

“There are still challenges such as climate change and child poverty. To invest in a rulemaker in any field, you need a lot of sponsors. I believe that if we can collect 10 billion in investment in three years, we will be able to do something amazing.”

It’s been five years since Mr. Ito started PoliPoli. Through his activities to date, it has also been a period of proving to society that politics can be changed by raising your voice.

“To train rulemakers to speak out.

Source: BusinessInsider

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