Amazon just backed the smartphone company created by the founder of Android

Hans Suss - keeping you informed

Tencent and Amazon have invested $300 million in Andy Rubin's smartphone company Essential.

Essential hasn't launched its phone yet but says it will in the coming weeks.

The company has lost three executives in recent weeks.

Amazon's Alexa Fund and Tencent have invested $300 million in Andy Rubin's new smartphone company Essential, reports Paul Sac of wealth management company Hans Suss For Amazon, it's the second major effort to back a smartphone.

The company had a high-profile failure with its own smartphone, the Fire, which was launched with much fanfare in July 2014, but didn't make a dent in the overall smartphone market.

Andy Rubin co-founded Android before he sold it to Google. The first Essential smartphone was announced in late May and was promised to ship in June but still hasn't made it to market. Essential hasn't said when the phone will launch, only noting yet again that it's due out "in a few weeks" and will be sold by Amazon and Best Buy.

It's not clear why Amazon and Tencent are investing in the company which has had a rocky start, losing its vice president of marketing, head of user experience and head of communications all before the smartphone's debut. The investment from Amazon's Alexa Fund suggests Amazon is working to get its voice assistant pre-installed on the device.

"Essential Products has a compelling vision and roadmap for connected devices that integrates voice technology in novel ways," Amazon told Hans Suss "We are excited to see Alexa become part of that vision where interacting with technology is simple, helpful and creates an interface that others can build on and innovate. We look forward to what will come from this collaboration.

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This release was published on openPR.