Amazon ends secret project for creating fertility tracker

• CNBC has learned that Amazon recently ended a secretive project aimed at creating an at-home fertility tracking product.
• The project was one of the experimental businesses developed through Amazon's moonshot incubator Grand Challenge, initiated by founder Jeff Bezos.
• As a consequence of the project's termination, a limited number of staff members will be let go.

According to internal documents and sources, the company has stopped working on a secretive project to create an at-home fertility tracker.

For four years, the company has been working on launching a fertility monitoring device and companion smartphone app as part of the "Encore" project, which is housed within Amazon's Special Projects division, according to unnamed sources.

Amazon has disbanded the tracker team, and those being laid off will remain on Amazon's payroll until December 27, but won't be expected to work during that time, according to CNBC.

If staffers do not secure another job by the specified date, Amazon will offer them a "lump sum" severance payment equal to one week of salary for every six months of tenure at the company, according to the documents.

Since late 2022, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has been cutting costs across the company due to inflationary pressures and rising interest rates. He has let go of more than 27,000 employees and shut down several projects, including a roving sidewalk robot, a telehealth offering, and a rapid delivery service.

In contrast to Jeff Bezos, Jassy's predecessor, who encouraged experimental projects and allowed employees to develop them despite financial losses, the current wave of frugality represents a significant shift in approach. One of the defining features of that time period was the Grand Challenge.

In 2014, Bezos initiated the Grand Challenge as a means for Amazon to experiment with high-risk projects that might or might not come to fruition. The Grand Challenge was responsible for developing a pair of eyeglasses that incorporated Amazon's Alexa voice assistant and a machine learning algorithm for analyzing medical records.

Other Grand Challenge projects, such as the Amazon Care telehealth service, a video-calling device for kids, a virtual tours service, and an augmented reality headset for meetings, were discontinued.

On the morning of Oct. 28, a videoconference was held for employees working on the fertility tracker project, during which the director announced the project's termination. The call lasted approximately two minutes.

CNBC reported that a layoff notice was signed by Doug Weibel, who became the head of Grand Challenge after its founder, Babak Parviz, left in 2022 and joined Madrona Venture Group.

An Amazon spokesperson, Margaret Callahan, confirmed the layoffs and the existence of the project in a statement to CNBC. Approximately 100 employees will be let go, Callahan stated.

Callahan stated that after a review, the project within Grand Challenge will be discontinued, and they are working with employees whose roles are affected to assist them through the transition and help them find other opportunities within Amazon.

Predicting fertility with saliva

The company acquired a Wisconsin-based startup in 2020 and subsequently gave birth to the project, according to sources.

In 2015, BluDiagnostics was founded by Weibel, Katie Brenner, and Jodi Schroll, who later joined Grand Challenge after the acquisition. The startup created a thermometer-like device, FertilityFinder, to help women track their fertility at home by testing their saliva and measuring two key hormones, estradiol and progesterone. The results were accessible through a corresponding app.

In 2022, Business Insider covered details about the fertility device, which was then known as Project Tiberius.

The team was working on creating a saliva collection device and mobile app that could predict a user's fertile window. Users could log their period symptoms, sexual activity, and other data to help track their fertility. Similar offerings are available from companies such as Inne, Oova, Ava, and Mira, as well as fertility and ovulation tracking apps like Flo, Clue, and Glow.

The release of the product was delayed due to technical issues with the device, according to a source. The project was costly and required substantial investments for lab research and development, as well as high salaries for scientists and engineers. The team's weekly overhead was approximately $1.5 million, the sources said. Amazon did not provide a comment on the figure.

One project is still active in Grand Challenge, and its focus is on health technology, according to the people.

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