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Bezos and robots go way back
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Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos was part of an investor group that recently sunk $7 million into Heartland Robotics, a stealthy Boston area startup working with industrial robots. It seemed to be a new area of interest for Bezos. But as it turns out, he's been looking at the technology for some time. Bezos took part in an earlier, unreported $5 million funding for Heartland Robotics, Xconomy reports. And Bezos has a connection to iRobot, another robotics firm that, like Heartland, was founded by MIT professor Rodney Brooks, according to a review of Securities and Exchange Commission filings.
Publicly traded iRobot makes robots for the government, military and consumers (including Roomba, a circular vacuum-cleaning robot that glides over the floor). As part of an amended S-1 registration statement in July 2005 before iRobot went public, the company listed Explore Holdings LLC as an investor, and named Elizabeth Korrell as its manager. Explore Holdings is another name for Bezos Expeditions, Jeff Bezos' personal investment firm. Elizabeth Korrell is an attorney for Bezos.
Melinda Lewison, the contact listed on Bezos Expeditions' website, did not respond to an email. Representatives of Heartland Robotics and iRobot couldn't immediately be reached for comment.
Heartland Robotics isn't revealing much yet about its business yet, saying only that it's using robots to "increase productivity and revitalize manufacturing." Its founder, MIT professor Brooks, is known for developing robots that respond dynamically to their environment. He and Bezos, who run in the same high-powered tech circles, seem to have struck up a productive partnership.
Update: Charlie Vaida, a spokesman for iRobot, declined to comment on Bezos' involvement with the company.
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About Eric Engleman
ERIC ENGLEMAN is senior technology staff writer for TechFlash and the Puget Sound Business Journal, covering online retail giant Amazon.com. Engleman tracks Amazon's increasingly complex business, spanning ecommerce, Kindle, cloud computing, and more. He's been covering technology and other industries for the Business Journal since 2003.
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