For over a year, the Alexa Fund has been investing in promising startups that are fueling speech technology advances and voice application innovation. Today, we are excited to announce the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars. The accelerator is the first of its kind at Amazon and another initiative from the Alexa Fund to champion builders, developers, and entrepreneurs innovating with voice technology.

The Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, will focus on Alexa domains, including, but not limited to, such areas as connected home, wearables and hearables, enterprise, communications, connected car, health and wellness, and enabling technologies.  It will also give us the opportunity to work with exciting startups from around the world, and along the way, we expect to see many new applications and innovations we haven’t even imagined.

The Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, will begin accepting applications to the program in January 2017.  Following a rigorous review process, 10-12 selected finalists will come together in Seattle to take part in an intensive  13-week program, during which time they’ll be matched with mentors from Amazon and Techstars to develop their technologies and business models.  The program begins in July 2017 and comes to an eventfulclose in October 2017 with the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars Demo Day, giving the companies the opportunity to showcase their products and meet with investors.

The Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, is part of the fast-growing Alexa Fund, which now includes 22 investments in companies that range from early- to late-stage.  To share more about the accelerator, program leaders from the Alexa Fund and Techstars will host information sessions in places like Seattle, San Francisco, New York City, Boston, London, Berlin, and Tel Aviv over the coming months.  Visit the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars page to learn more and to stay tuned to updates.

Experiences designed around the human voice will fundamentally improve the way people use technology. The Alexa Fund—named for the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo—provides up to $100 million in investments to fuel voice technology innovation from developers, manufacturers, and start-ups of all sizes.

Today, Alexa Fund recipient Luma Inc. announced that its home WiFi system is available for purchase and will begin shipping to preorder customers. Luma’s routers create a mesh network that surround the home with fast and secure internet to eliminate dead zones and buffering and to safeguard connected devices. You can pre-order your Luma device today on Amazon.com for $149. Luma also plans to create fun and unique Alexa skills for Luma customers. The skill will be released in the coming weeks and will initially allow Luma customers to pause and unpause their home internet.

“It’s exciting to see Luma’s vision to bring better and faster WiFi to customers come to life with the availability of its first home system,” said Steve Rabuchin, Vice President, Amazon Alexa. “We saw great promise in Luma to push forward IOT and voice technologies when we invested in the company through the Alexa Fund. The addition of an Alexa skill will bring increased functionality and make it seamless for customers to better control their home internet through their voice.”    

Alexa Fund Companies

Luma joins 16 companies—Sutro, Invoxia, Petnet, Musaic, Rachio, Scout Alarm, Garageio, Toymail, Dragon Innovation, MARA, Mojio, TrackR, OrangeChef, Kitt.ai, and Ring—that have already received investments from the Alexa Fund. And, recipients MARA, Rachio, Mojio, Garageio, and Scout Alarm have already launched new skills for Alexa. Most recently, MARA Running Assistant released their skill for Alexa that makes it easy to interact with MARA Running Assistant, a hands-free voice-controlled assistant that will support and coach you while you exercise. Customers can ask the skill questions like “Alexa, ask MARA how many miles have I run so far this week?”

This past summer we launched the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK), a collection of self-service APIs and tools that made it fast and easy for you to create new voice-driven capabilities for Alexa. Alexa is the same cloud-based voice service that now powers Amazon Echo, Amazon Fire TV and Stick. Thanks to you, there are currently over 120+ Alexa skills available across Alexa enabled devices. The Alexa Skills Kit has had many new features added since launch, many of which were based directly on your feedback. As we continue to evolve Alexa in 2016 we look forward to hearing your feedback!

Here is a look back at helpful Alexa posts on the Amazon Apps & Services Blog in 2015:

Experiences designed around the human voice will fundamentally improve the way people use technology. The Alexa Fund—named for the cloud-based voice service that powers Amazon Echo—provides up to $100 million in investments to fuel voice technology innovation from developers, manufacturers, and start-ups of all sizes.

Today we announced the next recipient of the Alexa Fund, Sutro. Sutro is creating a connected smart pool monitor that uses breakthrough technology to remove the burden of water maintenance and enable homeowners to focus on enjoying their pool and spa investments. Sutro automates water testing, can ship chemicals when needed either direct from Sutro or through Amazon’s Dash Replenishment Service, and guides users on how and when to maintain their pool. Sutro is using the Alexa Skills Kit so that Amazon Echo users can simply say “Alexa, ask Sutro what temperature is my pool?” or “Alexa, ask Sutro how long until my spa is ready?” Customers can sign up today and be the first to know when Sutro launches in early 2016 at www.mysutro.com.