Amazon injects an additional $100m into the Alexa fund, aiming at global development

Amazon's venture capital fund, the Alexa Fund, invests in companies that include smart assistants in their products, setting aside a new $100m to support international development. Amazon launched the Alexa fund in June 2015, with an initial investment of up to $100m.

Amazon will launch Alexa in Australia and New Zealand in early 2018, a company spokesman told VentureBeat. The company launched its Alexa service in India in October and in Japan in November. The Echo device was born in the United States in 2015, but will be available in the UK and Germany in the second half of 2016, and Canada will be available from December.

With a new investment of $100m, Amazon's efforts for Alexa will be extended to countries outside the United States, and the installation will not only be limited to its own home, but also to hotels, stores, workplaces and so on.

In the past two years, Alexa funds have invested in more than 30, including seven outside the US. In addition to the $120 million round launched by Canadian wearable company Thalmic Labs, it also participated in the $35 million round of Canadian smart home launch Ecobee, and provided financial assistance to French smart speaker manufacturer Invoxia while the amount was not disclosed.

Other companies supported by the Alexa fund include Ring, a smart home security company, Nucleus, which starts a walkie-talkie, Vesper, a microphone maker, and TrackR, which has developed Alexa skills to find lost property at home.

Communities and enterprises interested in making full use of Alexa voice services while integrating them into the conversational AI of their own products must meet the investment criteria of the Alexa Fund in order to maintain fairness with domestic and foreign companies in the United States, Fund Director Paul Bernard told VentureBeat.

Mr Bernard said:

Some Alexa funds have been used to support international development.

In addition to the Alexa fund, which funds start-up support and research activities, the Alexa fund also invests money in the 13-week start-up accelerator "Alexa Accelerator" led by TechStars in Seattle.

The first Alexa accelerator class had applications from more than 50 countries around the world, and promotions were carried out in Berlin, London, Tel Aviv and other places. Companies participating in the first class include London-based e-sports starting platform Sensible Objects. The company will launch a number of board games next year, using Alexa as part of the gaming experience.

Bernard told VentureBeat that it has not been determined whether the Alexa fund will support the accelerator in the second year.

Two companies funded by the Alexa fund have been acquired by other companies. The manufacturing planning company Dragon Innovation was acquired by Avnet. Natural language understanding Kitt.ai, which has a presence in Beijing and Seattle, was acquired by Baidu this summer and the Baidu intends to turn its conversational AI DuerOS into China's Alexa.

Not all startups backed by Alexa funds have been acquired.

Amazon launched Echo Show in May. In addition to the 7-inch screen, the device also has the ability to interact with Alexa and features the same look and action as home walkie-talkies and video calling devices made by Nucleus.

Accept the release of Echo Show in May, Nucleus CEO Johnathan Frankel told Recode.

In response, Amazon commented in a statement that the idea of walkie-talkies didn't come from Nucleus, and that Alexa has been gradually introduced into visual devices such as Alexa Fire TV and Fire tablets.

This fall, CNBC listened to five or six companies backed by Alexa funds. Among them, Amazon said it had made a firm commitment to set up a firewall between the fund and the product team. However, they say they are assigned to work with Amazon teams, such as Amazon Web Services and Lab126. Some say the joint work with the Alexa fund is a double-edged sword. Being able to work with Alexa's production team is an opportunity because we have to share a lot of information with this team. On the other hand, it was said that the benefits of collaboration outweigh the risks.

[via VentureBeat] @ VentureBeat

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