Instead, it developed AR projects and campaigns for brands, businesses and other organizations, including Vogue, Carolina Herrera, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, H&M, Forever 21, Warner Music, LADBible (in partnership with KSI and Craig David), the British Army, TEDx and several others.ĭuring this time, Beem’s technology was used to stream an artist’s music in AR, deliver a live conference to users’ homes in AR, create “virtual catwalks” and create other sorts AR experiences for its clients. The founder put together a team of computer scientists and researchers to work on the concept, which today includes Chief of Product Damian Hickey, previously product head at AR pioneer Blippar and Denis Islamov, co-founder and CTO, whose background is in applied mathematics and physics.Īfter its official founding in 2017, Beem (previously HoloMe) did not fully target the consumer market. “The premise of Beem is that there’s going to be an inevitable next step in the way that humans communicate digitally, which is more credible and more immersive than doing a video call.” “But then we kind of stopped,” says Amstutz. Meanwhile, communications continued to evolve from home telephones to cell phones to Skype. “We put a very big emphasis on face-to-face communication,” he explains of his alternative childhood environment’s lack of modern technology. Beem CEO Janosch Amstutz describes his parents as “hippies” who lived in a small Australian beachside town, Byron Bay, where they raised cows and chickens, used solar power, collected rainwater and didn’t even have a telephone - just a two-way radio that the community would share. Surprisingly, the idea for the startup comes from a founder who grew up without much access to technology. But using AR for telepresence, as Beem intends, isn’t a common use case. What’s the next step beyond Zoom calls and FaceTime? How about beaming yourself from one device to another in real time using augmented reality? That’s the premise behind a startup called Beem, which is today announcing its first consumer app, $4 million in seed funding and its longer-term plan to become a communications technology for the AR glasses of the future.Ĭonsumers today know AR technology thanks to interactions with Snapchat Lenses and TikTok Effects, through mobile games like Pokémon GO and by visualizing products they’re considering buying - like furniture they place in their room, or makeup they virtually try on via an AR filter.