Amazon invests in prefabricated home startup with Alexa Fund

A Plant Prefab home.
Plant
Prefab

• Amazon‘s
  Alexa Fund has invested in Plant Prefab, a startup that creates
  and builds prefabricated homes.
• 
  The Alexa Fund is contributing to a $6.7 million
  round of funding for the company.
  
• The move is the latest that Amazon has taken to cement
  Alexa’s place in the home.

Amazon
is doubling down on the home.

The company’s Alexa Fund, which it usually uses to fund
voice-technology ventures, has invested in prefabricated housing
startup Plant Prefab,
the startup announced on Tuesday. Plant Prefab focuses on
building new, prefabricated, single- and multi-family homes using
sustainable practices, and it claims it can build faster and with
less waste than traditional methods, according to the company’s
website.

Obvious Ventures also participated in the startup’s $6.7 million
round of funding.

Why is Amazon’s Alexa Fund interested in a prefab home startup?
It’s just the latest move that suggests that Amazon’s Alexa
technology is all about the home. 

“Voice has emerged as a delightful technology in the home, and
there are now more than 20,000 Alexa-compatible smart home
devices from 3,500 different brands,” Paul Bernard, director of
Amazon’s Alexa Fund, said in a prepared statement.

“Plant Prefab is a leader in home design and an emerging,
innovative player in home manufacturing. We’re thrilled to
support them as they make sustainable, connected homes more
accessible to customers and developers.”

Bernard refers directly to connected homes, an area that could
spell growth for Amazon if the company is able to integrate Alexa
into a home before it is even built and delivered to customers.

Amazon is looking to own the home more completely. Earlier
in September, it unveiled
updates and additions to its Alexa-powered device lineup that
are designed to enhance playback of music and video, as well as
more easily control smart-home devices. The new devices further
entrench Alexa as a leading platform for the connected home as
Amazon
builds out its ecosystem of entertainment and utility.