Alexa Fund was among the investors that closed a seed funding round in Bamboo Learning at the end of 2019. It’s not just smart home technology that Alexa Fund is interested in: The fund is targeting businesses in education software. Sweepr can answer everyday simple questions such as “Why won’t Netflix load?” “Customers love using Alexa to control their connected devices and we want to continue to make the entire smart home experience even simpler and more convenient,” says Alexa Fund director Paul Bernard. The program delivers specific instructions, photographs and videos in an easy-to-understand format that are customized for each person. Sweepr’s smart technology offers technical support for Internet-connected homes without having to go through customer service. In 2020, Alexa Fund participated in a Series A round of VC funding for Dublin-based Sweepr. Alexa Skills Kit is a set of tools that build apps for the device Alexa Voice Service is built into Internet-connected devices that have a microphone and a speaker. The Alexa Fund has specific investment criteria: It’s looking for companies that can offer convenience via one’s voice, and businesses that solve hard problems in creative ways and are a good fit with the Alexa Skills Kit or Alexa Voice Service. Voice shopping on Alexa is catching on quickly, ranging from ordering food to restocking refrigerators, and investors are figuring out how to take advantage. Voice and text-assisted technology, including the Alexa device, is becoming ubiquitous in everyday shopping routines. “We believe experiences designed around the human voice will fundamentally improve the way people use technology,” Amazon’s website states. That includes text to speech, natural language, automatic speech recognition and artificial intelligence. The fund focuses on hardware products both inside and outside the home, businesses that deliver new services to devices enabled by Amazon’s Alexa and companies that can contribute to the science behind voice technology. The Alexa Fund, Inc.’s (Nasdaq: AMZN) venture capital fund, invests up to $200 million in VC in voice technology companies. AI startups raised a worldwide record of $26.6 billion in 2019, compared to about $22 billion in 2018, according to CB Insights. One is that they can gain access to new technologies while doing due diligence for potential deals.Ĭorporations are partnering with AI startups in particular as they look for companies that will help them compete with new players.įor example, Microsoft has partnered with KenSci, which developed AI software that predicts care and cost risks for patients. Using venture capital has advantages for strategic buyers. But as time went on, CVC funds started behaving more and more like traditional venture capital funds. In the past, strategic buyers invested only in tech companies that directly fit with their core products. Middle-market dealmakers would be wise to track the VC investments of the five companies we highlight in this story: Amazon, Google, Intel, Microsoft and Salesforce.Ī CVC fund can be formed either as the independent arm of a corporation or as a dedicated fund within the same company. The CVC strategy often augments a company’s research and development efforts as well as complementing its M&A strategy. These CVCs help their owners experiment and nurture new technologies and ideas in the early stages, without requiring the commitment of an acquisition. It’s fitting that many of them have created corporate venture capital groups of their own. Once venture capital-backed startups themselves, today’s tech giants know a thing or two about VC seed money.
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