From TechCrunch, January 17:
Amazon has spent nearly two years putting an undisclosed portion of its $1 billion industrial innovation fund to work with investments in nearly a dozen U.S. and Israeli startups focused on logistics, the supply chain and customer fulfillment. Now, Amazon is flexing a bit — with an aim to expand geographically and to push into areas like generative AI that support the broader mission, the fund’s new head Franziska Bossart told TechCrunch in an exclusive interview.
The Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, which launched in April 2022, is still intent on finding and investing in startups that can help the e-commerce giant deliver goods faster, while improving the experience of customers as well as the employees who work in its warehouses and logistics departments. The fund is also designed to build off of Amazon’s previous investments in AI and robotics that have led to improvements in its operations, including the addition of robotic arms that perform repetitive tasks and automation vehicles that can help transport larger items. Its first tranche of investments in 2022 went to five startups that are developing robotics and wearable technology that improves safety in its fulfillment centers.
The fund had a slow start with reportedly just $110 million invested into startups in its first year. The pace appears to have picked up since spring 2023 with investments in Veo Robotics, computer vision company Flymingo, industrial wireless automation startup CoreTigo, Rightbot and Instock. The fund even recently invested in an undisclosed generative AI startup, said Bossart, who would only say the company’s technology could have a strong impact on robotics....
....MUCH MORE
Previously, May 2022:
Although they'll never find another Kiva (value/price, simplicity, ROI) a company like Amazon, with 1.5 million employees and possible warehouse overbuilding is going to be attracted to workers that don't unionize and can be moved around from location to location....
"In 2012 Jeff Bezos scooped up warehouse automation firm Kiva. Everyone else is still trying to catch up" (AMZN)
