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Bee sells a $50 Fitbit-like wristband that listens to and summarizes user chats and reminders; The wearable AI devices category, however, is yet to prove its utility.
Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) has acquired Bee, which sells a Fitbit-like wearable device that listens to and summarizes conversations and notes, as the e-commerce giant looks to expand its gadgets portfolio.
"Bee is joining Amazon and we couldn't be more excited," Co-founder and CEO Maria de Lourdes Zollo said in a LinkedIn post on Tuesday. Co-founder Ethan Sutin told The Verge that all Bee employees have received offers to join Amazon.
Financial terms of the deal are not disclosed.
Bee was founded in 2022 and debuted its first product, a $50 wristband called Pioneer, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this year. The company had previously raised $7 million in funding from investors, including Greycroft and New Wave VC.
The band, which uses generative artificial intelligence technology and a companion app, listens to user conversations and generates personalized summaries for chats, reminders, and suggestions.
Users can give the device permission to access emails, contacts, location, reminders, photos, and calendar events to help inform its AI-generated insights, as well as create a searchable history of their activities.
As a category, wearable AI devices still face skepticism, largely because smartphones already handle many of the same tasks more intuitively and efficiently.
Humane's novel $700 AI Pin generated a lot of hype but did not garner favorable reviews. The company eventually stopped the product earlier this year and sold its intellectual property to HP.
Still, it is an emerging category. Reports indicate that OpenAI, along with its new top designer, Jony Ive, is working on wearable AI devices, which are likely to be unveiled next year.
For Amazon, the acquisition of Bee adds to its already sophisticated collection of consumer gadgets, which includes Alexa smart-home devices, the Kindle e-book reader, and the Fire TV Stick.
The e-commerce giant acquired video doorbell maker Ring for $1 billion in 2018; however, its attempt to buy Roomba maker iRobot was blocked on antitrust grounds more recently.
On Stocktwits, the retail sentiment for Amazon's shares held in the 'bearish' zone, unchanged from a week ago. AMZN stock is up 3.7% year-to-date.
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