Internet and technology group Alphabet has launched a corporate venturing fund called Google Assistant Investments to fund developers of technology compatible with its virtual assistant platform, Google Assistant.
Google Assistant Investments will provide portfolio companies with funding and priority access to new features for Alphabet’s smart speaker, Google Home, as well as discounted cloud storage and opportunities for co-marketing.
The unit does have not have an overall investment limit, according to CNBC, and will focus on strategic investments rather than maximising returns, in contrast to other Alphabet units such as GV and CapitalG.
Four companies have received funding from Google Assistant Investments: hotel chatbot developer Go Moment, English tutoring platform Edwin, voice-interface engine developer Botsociety and Pulse Labs, a provider of testing technology for voice applications.
Ilya Gelfenbeyn has headed the unit since September 2017 according to his LinkedIn profile. He joined Alphabet subsidiary Google when it acquired natural language processing platform Dialogflow, which he co-founded, in September 2016 and was its product lead within Google afterwards.
Nick Fox, vice-president of product management for Google, told CNBC: “[Voice control] is still a very nascent area. It is just getting built up, and the sky is really the limit for these developers to bring the Assistant to life in different use cases.”