Amazon launched the Alexa fund in 2015, supporting early stage audio startups. With the advent of large language models and Amazon, the launch of Gen AI-powered Alexa+, and along with a family of multimodal AI models, the fund wants to broaden its scope and invest more in AI startups.
In a blog post that Amazon shared with TechCrunch before it was published, Alexa Fund leader Paul Bernard explained that the company is currently hoping to invest in areas such as AI-enabled hardware and smart agents.
“Although the Alexa Fund mission has evolved beyond its long-standing focus on voice technology, the rapid development of AI presents an inflection point that allows the fund to adopt new technologies while serving as its original mission,” Bernard said.
“That’s why the fund is investing in startups that advance cutting edge hardware with AI-enabled hardware, generator media, smart agents, emerging AI architectures, and more. To dig deeper into this evolving investment strategy, we met Paul Bernard, director of ALEXA funds, and asked him about his recent investments.”
The fund is investing in four new startups working in a variety of fields.
Ninjatech AI: This is an all-in-one AI company with chatbots with the ability to generate code, images, and videos, perform deep investigations and schedule meetings. Like the AI assistant platform, including Quora’s Poe, Ninjatech AI offers access to Openai, Meta, Anthropic, Google and Deepseek models. Amazon said the company operates infrastructure on AWS.
Hedra: Hedra is an AI media company that allows users to generate images, audio and video through their studios. The company recently launched Character 3 AI to create content in various forms. Last year, the company raised $10 million from A16Z games Speedrun, Abstract and Index Ventures. ARIO: ARIO is an AI-driven family management app that handles scheduling and tasks. The company has created a school email decoder to create events and action items through school communication. Bernard said he was impressed with the app because he understands the personal context behind the task. In particular, startups like Haas Display and Maple are also working to resolve family schedule management. Heyboss: It’s hard to get away with the phrase “vibe coding” on the internet, especially when following Tech. Heyboss is a startup in the same category and you can create a website, app, game or prototype just by describing them. Other startups working in the same area include Cursor, Adorable, Replica, and Bolt.new.
For Amazon, these startups are also a way to use the cloud and AI stack. Many of these startups have early access to Amazon’s private APIs and SDKs and become test sites for e-commerce companies. Amazon also said that it has access to senior executives or opportunities with Amazon Business.
All major companies working for AI are looking to fund promising startups that can use AI models. Openai’s startup fund supports many companies in the healthcare, robotics, EDTECH and creative tools sectors. Anthropic has partnered with Menlo Ventures to create an investment vehicle for startups. Google has recently supported companies such as the lockscreen platform’s appearance and the webtoons platform Toonsutra, providing access to a variety of AI models.