Techstars and the Alexa Fund are very excited to release for viewing the Innovation Showcase for the inaugural class of Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars. 

The Innovation Showcase celebrates the hard work that the companies have done over the course of the program, featuring video pitches from all seven companies from this year’s class. The Showcase creates an opportunity for the class to pitch their companies to a broader set of audiences, including additional talent, customers, and key stakeholders at Amazon. The pitches give you a firsthand view of how their products are transforming customers’ lives and illustrate the huge potential for innovative voice technology.

The Innovation Showcase is now available for anyone to watch. Watch the pitches here. 

Read about Blerp, a company in the Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars program. What Giphy is to visual media, Blerp is to audio.

“It’s pretty clear voice is going to be the dominant interface between voice and machine,” says Dani Cherkassky, CEO and founder of Kardome, which enables voice assistants to work better in loud environments and is a part of this year’s class. “Amazon and Techstars introduced us to experts in this industry who helped us steer the development of our technology.”

Surbhi Rathore, CEO of Symbl.ai, another company from this year’s class that is spearheading conversational AI, agrees that mentorship was key. “Working under such great leadership at Amazon can help us bring our technology to scale,” she says. “I would give Techstars quite a bit of credit in our company journey. They were able to put the right pieces of the puzzle together to help us tell our story in the best possible way.” 

Check out a profile of Blue Fever, a company in the Alexa Next Stage, Powered by Techstars program. Blue Fever is an AI big sister to talk to.

Thank you to the mentors across both the Amazon and Techstars networks for supporting these companies. 

We hope you enjoy the Showcase and reach out to the companies.

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