The San Diego-based company is developing autonomous airplanes it says will be able to transport freight at a fraction of current costs. In May 2022, the venture unit identified Natilus as a promising startup that could bolster Amazon’s airfreight ambitions. One deal pursued by Amazon was emblematic of the fund’s struggle, one of the people said. The corporate-development team, which has traditionally had authority over Amazon’s investments and acquisitions, wanted the fund directed at more mature companies with customer and product traction, according to the people.
The venture unit, which reported to Amazon’s robotics division, wanted to target startups that were at their earliest stages and that were developing tech that didn’t necessarily have a business proposition fully fleshed out.
#Venture logistics india how to#
Amazon said in announcing the fund it would target startups of all stages.īut since the launch, the fund has completed only a few more deals, in part because Amazon’s venture unit and corporate development unit dueled over how to deploy its capital, the people said. “We see an opportunity to look beyond our own experience and empower companies that are developing emerging technologies in customer fulfillment operations, logistics, and the supply chain," Alex Ceballos Encarnacion, Amazon’s vice president of worldwide corporate development, said in a blog post.Īmazon disclosed it completed five investments through the fund when it announced the vehicle’s launch, including Agility Robotics, an Oregon-based startup developing a two-legged robot that can carry and walk packages to front doors. Nevertheless, Amazon jumped into the venture arena in April 2022 when it said it was launching the investment program to spur innovation in customer fulfillment, logistics and the supply chain, in part to increase delivery speed. That has left these funds susceptible to shifting economic winds or strategy changes of their parent companies. Many corporate venture initiatives, including Amazon’s, draw capital directly from their parent company’s balance sheet and don’t have outside investors. Last year, corporations participated in global deals worth $15 billion.Īnother factor working against Amazon’s logistics bet: Venture units in corporate behemoths have historically struggled to move as fast as traditional venture firms. In 2021, companies participated in $28 billion worth of global supply-chain-related venture deals, up 83% from 2019, according to analytics firm PitchBook.Ĭorporate investing in logistics has since tapered along with the broader market.
“In the year since its launch, Amazon has made a number of successful investments through the Industrial Innovation Fund, and we’re excited by the pace at which we’re finding and supporting great companies that use new technologies in ways that reimagine customer fulfillment, logistics and the supply chain," the company said in a statement.Ĭompanies ramped up supply-chain-focused venture efforts in the years leading up to 2022 and accelerated them when the pandemic wreaked havoc on global logistics. Amazon has led the way in this field, but it relies in part on its fund to remain ahead of the curve as a crop of young startups introduce tech such as artificial intelligence into the field. The fund’s slow start comes as the e-commerce industry is locked in a hypercompetitive race to offer faster shipping in part by adopting new technology to streamline complex supply chains and transform goods transport. Amazon teams, including the company’s venture unit and corporate development unit, have worked collaboratively, the official added. That led to deals getting done with less-than-ideal terms or deals falling through, leaving the fund lagging behind the typical pace at which funds of its size deploy capital, the people said.Īn Amazon official disputed internal politics have negatively affected the fund, adding it is deploying capital in step with the broader market, which has seen slowed investing over the past year and a half. The slow pace has been due in part to disagreements over which team-corporate development or the venture team assembled to help manage the fund-had the final say about whether to write a check to a startup, the people said. Venture funds typically aim to invest their capital into new companies within five years. Just over a year later, the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund has made only a few new investments and has deployed roughly $110 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Investors and entrepreneurs took notice of the fund’s size and Amazon’s ambitions to pour it into companies that could bolster Amazon’s dominance in the field.
0 kommentar(er)
