Beams, innovator in short-form audio, completes seed round of $6 million

As social audio continues to generate interest among consumers and investors alike, Beams announced today that it has secured an additional $3M, led by US-based TheVentureCity, rounding out its seed round to a total of $6M.

Additional investors in the round include Allbirds and Warby Parker early-stage investor Kal Vepuri, Elan Lee, co-founder of Exploding Kittens, as well as existing investors Mangrove Capital, Redalpine and Wavemaker.

Created as a place for people to come together and share diverse views on different trends and interests, Beams allows people to post up to 90 seconds of voice recordings into groups. Either in-app or on the Web, groups on Beams can be open to everyone, or kept private for select people to add to conversations. This unique format lets you hear voices from the street, drop recorded thoughts and responses in your own time, and find other experts sharing a daily dose of news or observations in an easy-to-consume way.

“Audio has finally arrived on the social media landscape, presenting itself as the future content format,” said TheVentureCity’s EMEA General Partner Andres Dancausa. “The opportunity to invest in a company that is already so far ahead in disrupting the emerging audio market is beyond exciting.”

Founded during the pandemic, the company’s leadership consists of former Soundcloud, Spotify, and N26 employees who have helped shape some of today’s leading audio and tech products. Previously, the team built digital audio experiences for world-renowned artist JR: these art installations documented more than 3,000 voices telling personal stories presented at San Francisco’s MoMA, New York’s Brooklyn Museum, and a TIME cover story.

This deep and diverse expertise has helped Beams grow to host more than 5,000 topic groups - including groups with thousands of members - since launching earlier in the year. The company is based in Berlin, but functions as a fully-remote team across Europe, the UK, and the US.

“Today, when divisive content easily goes viral on social media, many people are longing for places that embrace sharing and listening to diverse voices and views.” said co-founder and co-CEO Alan Sternberg. “We designed Beams to make it easier to create and participate in real conversations through a collaborative short audio format. Listening to real people, through real voices, helps all of us better understand what is unfolding around us in society. That’s the magic we already see Beams creating.”

About Beams

Beams is a new audio platform for communities to share voice recordings and listen on the go. Created to bring people closer through real conversations, the company was founded in 2020 by four tech enthusiasts with a deep background in audio. Beams is funded by US and European venture capital and angel investors, and currently available on iOS and web. The company is based in Berlin, with a fully remote global team.