People as holograms in augmented reality. Our angel fund invested in the London startup


The London startup Beem, which developed a revolutionary platform for transferring real people into augmented reality, received a total of $1.8 million in the seed round. One of the investors was the Czech angel fund Grouport, backed by DEPO Ventures. We did the whole process online – due diligence, acquaintance with the founders, and also signatures. We have invested units of millions of Czech crowns, says Grouport partner Michal Ciffra. Other investors were Ascension Ventures, London Co-Investment Fund, and 5Lion Ventures.

Beem new company in Depo Ventures portfolio

Thanks to its software technology, Beem can automatically process videos of people and products and broadcast them in augmented reality. Life-size photorealistic holograms can be accessed anywhere via smartphones or AR-enabled devices. Last year, for example, the company Beem collaborated on the ASOS fashion show and is now working on a Cisco telecommunications solution.

The future in marketing

Beem founder and CEO Janosch Amstutz believes that augmented reality will be a great tool for brand marketing. "We are thrilled to see how our technology can be used as a new way to communicate with the customer. In addition, we wish the current situation where the augmented reality market is growing rapidly, and the covid-19 pandemic have helped show the importance of this technology for retail. Infrastructure is also evolving very rapidly to scale this technology – especially 5G networks and AR cloud platforms,” adds Janosch Amstutz.

Beem's clients have already included, for example, the fashion magazine Vogue, the international company De Beers Group or the fashion aggregator Forever 21. It has recently acquired other major clients: Universal Music, Warner Music, the biopharmaceutical company AMGEN, and LADbible, which focuses on publishing fun clips, pictures, and longer-term campaigns aimed at young audiences.

"The Beem team is very high quality and has an interesting product that technologically surpasses all competing startups with a similar focus. In addition, his team is able to further develop the product in an interesting way. We already know today that a lot will happen in AR in the future - the global augmented reality market should grow from last year's $10.7 billion to $72.7 billion in 2024," says Petr Šíma, founder and CEO of DEPO Ventures.

Investments during a pandemic

Due to the covid-19 pandemic, all communication between Grouport and Beem took place exclusively via video conferencing. The first contact took place on the startup platform DEPO Ventures, which connects startups with investors. Grouport thus invested in a startup, the founder of which never met with Grouport representatives in person. "Times are changing, and thanks to technology, investing is becoming more and more internationalized for angel investors. In Europe, cross-border investing and the syndication of angel investors are currently major topics. The DEPO Ventures platform allows us great access to local and foreign projects and currently more and more opportunities in the form of co-investment with angel investors and funds at home and abroad," says Michal Ciffra.

During the online meetings, Beem representatives with a Czech investor discussed, for example, the Beem platform, which the startup is now launching. Beem is the world's first AR platform to allow influencers, celebrities, and artists to stream live using this technology. Beem also uses Grouport's network to find new clients and use its technology. "We rely on the expertise of Grouport, which will help us expand into the Czech market. In online investment negotiations, I did not see a difference from personal negotiations. From our first interaction with Grouport, it was clear that they were professional, reliable, and trustworthy,” says Janosch Amstutz.

"Beem has also won several awards. It was selected as the most innovative technology company in London for 2020, dominating the innovation ranking of London Tech 50. It was selected among the top 100 British startups of 2019, and its founder and CEO Janosch Amstutz was ranked among the 1000 most influential people in the Evening Standard/Citi survey,“ adds Petr Šíma.