US-based e-commerce firm Amazon has launched the third cohort of its Alexa Accelerator, which aims to develop startups working with its voice-controlled Alexa artificial intelligence (AI) technology, VentureBeat has reported.
The 13-week initiative will be run by Amazon’s venture capital vehicle, Alexa Fund, in partnership with accelerator operator Techstars. It will focus on education, real estate, machine learning, healthcare and wellness, fitness and healthcare technology startups.
Alexa Fund and Techstarts will jointly provide an initial $20,000 for each company in return for a 6% stake equity stake, with an additional $100,000 convertible note also potentially on offer.
In addition to equity funding, each of the 10 startups chosen for the third batch will gain access to Amazon employees and mentors from the Seattle AI community and Techstars network.
Alexa Fund’s previous accelerator batch consisted of nine companies including smart water meter developer Conservation Labs, commercial building assistant startup Imageous and children’s coding platform Unruly Studios.