Today, the Alexa Fund is pleased to announce the nine companies selected for the Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, a program designed to support early-stage startups using voice to deliver transformative customer and business experiences. The program will again be hosted in Seattle, Washington, this summer and will culminate in a Demo Day in October 2018, where each company will showcase their progress in front of investors, leaders from Amazon, and the Seattle tech community.  Reserve your ticket now.

Four of the participants from the first Alexa Accelerator, powered by Techstars, have gone on to raise venture-led rounds since the 2017 Demo Day in October last year, making the class's initial fundraising efforts one of the most successful in the 10-year history of Techstars. We are incredibly excited about the possibilities for this year’s participants, all of whom represent a diverse focus of products, services, and industries, and see Alexa as key to unlocking their full potential:

• Blutag - Helping retailers and brands deliver voice shopping experiences
• Conservation Labs - An affordable smart water meter to save money by reducing water use and detecting leaks
• HelixAI - Voice powered digital assistants for use in the laboratory sciences
• Imageous - Comfort and smart facilities AI assistant for occupants of commercial buildings
• Jargon - On demand conversational translation service to remove language barriers
• Novalia - Applying conductive print and microcontrollers to create immersive, touch-based experiences
• Presence AI - AI-powered conversations for small businesses to replace phone calls
• Unruly Studios - Bridging STEM and physical play to keep kids active while learning to code
• Voiceitt - Automatic Speech Recognition technology enabling people with speech impairments to communicate and be understood by voice

We received hundreds of applications from 44 countries around the world and the nine startups that were chosen to participate are each examples of the incredible potential for innovation in voice technology.  Over the next three months, these start-ups will roll up their sleeves and work intensively to develop the fundamentals they need to improve their products, refine their business model, and, ultimately, bring new Alexa capabilities to their customers. During that time, they will benefit from exposure to and mentorship by diverse product, business and technology leaders from across Amazon, Techstars, and the Seattle community.

We’re thrilled to welcome and support this new class of startups and look forward to seeing what amazing voice-powered experiences they will build for their customers. To learn more about the Alexa Fund, visit www.alexafund.com