Paul Bernard, director of worldwide corporate development at Amazon Alexa Fund, is one of the 100 leading corporate venturing professionals in our 2025 Powerlist.

Amazon, the US-based ecommerce, cloud and internet technology group, launched its Alexa corporate venturing fund in 2015. Set up with the mission to find and support startups that work with voice technology, it has made more than 150 investments to date, with 82 active portfolio companies.

“Our goal is to identify startups creating new experiences with Alexa, or advancing the state-of-the-art in voice technology and to give them the resources they need to grow their business,” Bernard told GCV in 2023.

With the advent of AI, the fund’s original focus has expanded to embrace new technologies that can make people’s lives better and easier. It now looks more closely at startups in sectors such as generative media, specialised AI experts, next-generation architecture and robotics.

In addition to providing capital, the fund aims to foster close relationships between startups and the Amazon businesses that can support them. This can range from commercial opportunities with Amazon, participation alongside Amazon at events, or access to senior executives.

“Our goal is to identify startups creating new experiences with Alexa, or advancing the state-of-the-art in voice technology and to give them the resources they need to grow their business.”

An example of these close ties is NinjaTech AI, the developer of a conversational AI platform designed to improve productivity for working professionals. The tech takes advantage of Amazon Web Services’ machine learning chips to build, train and scale custom AI agents that are capable of handling complex tasks autonomously.

Another recent investment is Hedra, the content creation platform enabling users to generate high-quality videos, images and audio. Last summer, Amazon participated in the $16m seed round raise for Ario, an AI-powered assistant aimed at parents, and HeyBoss AI, which facilitates app development regardless of the users’ technical background.

Bernard’s tenure at Amazon began in 2013 when he joined as director for worldwide corporate development. He previously worked for mobile phone manufacturer Nokia for more than 12 years.

Bernard has a law degree from the University of Ottawa, as well as a master’s degree in management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.


The Global Corporate Venturing Powerlist represents the 100 individuals spearheading the future of the corporate venturing industry.

These individuals excel in terms of their venturing approach and structure, number and quality of portfolio companies and in their contributions to the corporate venturing profession.

See the full 2025 Powerlist here.