Founder and CEO Elliott Horowitz said Beam hasn't exactly changed direction since our last conversation, but is more of a “rebrand.” About six months ago, the Manhattan-based startup made a concerted effort to broaden its focus. The development platform has previously focused on robotics companies. Although this is a large and rapidly expanding category, Horowitz explains that the company's vision is much bigger.
“This platform has been and continues to be used for a very wide range of things, including robotics, including IoT and smart homes, industrial automation, and all of these things with sensors and actuators and computing. ,” an executive told TechCrunch. “Sometime over the summer, we noticed that when we were emailing and talking to people, they basically got dizzy when they saw robotics on their home page. They said, “We're not a robot company. We do food processing, we do PLC automation, we build boats, we're not robots.''
Further complicating messaging, the company's name is simply “Viam,” but the company's various social media platforms have become “Viam Robotics” because they couldn't secure that four-letter word. The fact is that The company also focused much of its early support efforts on robotics. Viam's large office overlooking New York City's Lincoln Center includes lab space where members of the local robotics community are invited to use its platform to develop automation applications.
The rebrand included mixing demos and focusing on new applications beyond robotics. The list also includes industries such as insurance and maritime. The latter was particularly close to home as he spoke to me via Zoom from the bridge of his boat. He added that the company is in the process of partnering with several large enterprise organizations, but Viam is not yet at a stage where it can reveal their names.
Certainly, interest from investors remains. Viam announced this week a $45 million Series B featuring Union Square Ventures and Battery Ventures. The latest round brings the company's total funding up to $87 million. Viam says the funding will be used to strengthen research and development and commercial enterprise development. Horowitz said Viam is also aggressively expanding to 100 employees.
But even nearly a year after its commercial launch, the company is still struggling with issues like messaging when it comes to determining a more precise elevator pitch to explain exactly what Viam's software does. He acknowledges that he may be holding onto something.
“I can't say we don't have the biggest answer,” he confesses. “When people ask me what I do and what I do; [Viam’s software] I usually use examples from their lives. For example, has your HVAC broken? How do you find your coffee maker? If you know someone at all, you know that there is something wrong with interfacing software and hardware in that person's life. We are a platform that exists at the intersection of real-world hardware, real-world software, and cloud and machine learning. There's nothing like us. You can't compare. ”