How Amazon’s Startup Fund Is Betting On An Alexa-Everywhere Future
Where a traditional venture capital firm might focus on helping companies find their markets and eventually exit well, the Alexa fund also promotes a cause.
Where a traditional venture capital firm might focus on helping companies find their markets and eventually exit well, the Alexa fund also promotes a cause.
Amazon had a significant head start in the voice-based personal assistant wars when it introduced its Echo speaker in 2014. That original Echo, it turned out, was just the first vehicle for Alexa’s artificial intelligence and natural language technologies. Three years later, Amazon is pushing Alexa in all sorts of directions, including new apps, platforms, and gadgets from both Amazon and third parties. And while much of that product vision comes from inside Amazon, the company is wisely looking for the service to be shaped by outsiders, too.
Enter the Alexa Fund. Born with a $100 million investment from Amazon in 2015, the year after the debut of the Echo, the fund is part of the company’s effort to identify more Alexa-showcasing companies and products around the world. It isn’t just a fund. It’s come to comprise three parts–a…
