February 12, 2021 – Amazon.com Inc. has hired several employees of Caspr Biotech, a COVID-19 testing startup, as part of efforts to curb outbreaks among its workers, Bloomberg reports.
Caspr Biotech’s cofounders, CEO Franco Goytia and chief strategy officer Carla Gimenez, joined Amazon in December, according to a person familiar with the situation. The pair, along with several other startup employees, are working on a project codenamed Artemis.
Bloomberg was not sure whether Amazon acquired Caspr Biotech.
In a shareholder letter in April 2020, CEO Jeff Bezos said the company had begun building a lab to test employees for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, in Sunnyvale, California, the headquarters of Amazon’s Lab126 hardware group, the company was setting up a prototype lab and seeking microbiologists and researchers, and lawyers to oversee the legal aspects of the laboratory initiative.
“We are not sure how far we will get in the relevant timeframe,” Bezos wrote. “But we think it’s worth trying, and we stand ready to share anything we learn.”
Since then, Amazon hired dozens of lab technicians to staff laboratories in Hebron, Kentucky, near an Amazon air cargo hub, and Manchester, England.
The company has also shipped tests conducted at its facilities to third-party labs, including the University of Washington. Amazon said this month it was testing about 700 workers an hour.
Amazon declined to comment on Caspr Biotech and the hiring of its employees.