After forming a partnership with a major Japanese electronics company, nCo Tec ventures Ltd., a venture capital firm based in Britain, is gearing up to promote European ventures involving communications technology in the Japanese market, according to George MacRitchie, a partner in nCo Tec.

Last month, major Japanese computer maker NEC Corp. invested 8 million euros (about 860 million yen) in nCo Tec's venture capital fund, increasing the fund to a total of 53 million euros.

"Technologies from Europe (usually) first go to America. Then they come to Japan from America. We could probably end up reversing that," said MacRitchie, expressing hope that the recent cooperation with NEC will help increase European ventures' presence in Japan.

The London-based venture capital firm, established in May 2000, invests in European firms developing innovative information and communication technologies.

"We expect NEC to provide us sound strategic advice on where we should invest, help us evaluate technologies (of ventures) and give us advice on commercialization of technologies," said MacRitchie, who was visiting Tokyo earlier this week.

He also said that Tsutomu Nakamura, NEC's corporate officer in charge of the mobile terminals operation unit, has become a member of nCo Tec's advisory board.

While the partnership grants NEC access to technologies developed by the ventures in which nCo Tec has invested, the European enterprises will have opportunities to promote their products in Japan and other Asian countries by harnessing NEC's sales channels, MacRitchie said.

As a first step, nCo Tec has introduced NEC to two companies in which nCo Tec has invested -- Siroyan Ltd., a British semiconductor design firm for wireless terminals, and Kevab, a Swedish radio-base station design company.

Taking advantage of the relationship with NEC, the European ventures could also learn from Japan's advanced wireless communication experiences, MacRitchie said.

Japan's mobile service situation is between six and 18 months ahead of Europe, which is now building infrastructure for Internet-connected cellular services, according to nCo Tec officials.

According to the Telecommunications Carriers Association, Japan has the largest number of users of mobile phones connected to the Internet in the world -- about 46.18 million subscribers as of the end of October.

In addition, NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's No. 1 mobile phone carrier, started offering third-generation cellular services in and around Tokyo last month, ahead of the rest of the world.

3G mobile phones can browse the Internet at higher transmission speeds than mobile services such as i-mode. It also enables users to trade video images.

Since the U.S. economy started slowing down last year, the business environment for the fast-growing IT sector has turned sour in the rest of the world. According to a nCo Tec official, the shipment of cell phones in Europe this year has been flat on a year-on-year basis.

The venture capital company has so far attracted six investors, including NEC and French financial group Societe Generale, to the fund and invested in seven European ventures, specializing in mobile communication technologies or enterprise software to increase efficiency of online information management.

The mobile phone business will be soon revitalized in Europe because Internet-linked cellular services are expected to become available in the region within the next six months and European customers will replace their mobile phones with more advanced versions, MacRitchie said.

"It's a fantastic time to be investing in technologies," he said. "We are investing now at a price we couldn't dream of two years ago."