E-commerce and internet company Amazon and accelerator Techstars have partnered to launch the Alexa Accelerator program, a 13-week initiative that will invest an initial $20,000 in participating startups, TechCrunch wrote yesterday.
The program follows Amazon’s creation of the $100m Alexa Fund in June 2015. The initiative is named after the company’s cloud-based voice service that the company also uses in its personal assistant device.
The company has also recently launched the Alexa Prize, awarding cash to university students who develop artificial intelligence bots that can maintain a conversation.
Amazon has not revealed any constraints on what specific artificial intelligence areas the accelerator will focus on. Selected startups will receive office space at University of Washington and companies will be eligible for a further $100,000 cash injection in the form of a convertible note upon graduation.
Applications for the program open in January, with the first batch expected to enter in July 2017. A demo day is scheduled to take place the following October.