Amazon’s Alexa Fund is now backing AI startups

Amazon started the Alexa Fund in 2015 to back early-stage voice startups. With the advent of large language models and Amazon launching Gen AI-powered Alexa+ along with a family of multimodal AI models, the fund now wants to broaden its scope and invest more in AI startups. In a blog post Amazon shared with TechCrunch ahead of publication, Alexa Fund leader Paul Bernard explained that the company now wants to invest in areas including AI-enabled hardware and smart agents. “While the Alexa Fund’s mission has evolved beyond the initial focus on voice technology over the years, the rapid developments in AI present an inflection point that allows the Fund to embrace new technology while still serving its original mission,” Bernard said. “As such, the Fund has been investing in startups that advance the state-of-the-art in AI-enabled hardware, generative media, smart agents, emerging AI architectures, and more. To dive deeper into this evolving investment strategy, we met with Paul Berna ... Read full article.