Beam was founded by Eli Mernit, Luke Lombardi in 2021.

Who are Beam's investors?

Beam's investors include Alumni Ventures, Soma Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Y Combinator, Abacus Capital Group, AC Ventures, Accel, Archetype and 23 more.

Where is Beam headquartered?

Beam is headquartered in New York City, US.

Beam

YC W22

New York City, US · Founded 2021 · 5 employees · Hiring · 35 known investors

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Beam is a cloud platform for developers to build and ship AI products without managing infrastructure, servers, or containers. It provides compute resources including GPU workloads and sandboxes that scale automatically.

Also known as Smartshare, Inc. · Slai

AI & Machine Learning Cloud Computing Data & Infrastructure Developer Tools Enterprise Software Artificial Intelligence Open SourceUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaPartly Remote

Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (W22)

Beam was founded in 2021 by Eli Mernit and Luke Lombardi.

Eli Mernit FounderHe has experience as a competitive cyclist and hackathon participant.

Luke Lombardi FounderLuke Lombardi is a hardware and software engineer with experience in robotics and machine learning, and has worked as a prep cook.

Adam EagleFounder

Chinakrit PiamchonFounder

Dan MotticeFounder

Nattapat ChaimanowongFounder

Wallace HoFounder

Win VareekasemFounder

Investors · 35

Alumni Ventureslisted by Alumni VenturesManchester · $100K – $10M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · av.vc · Not right? Tell us

Soma Capitallisted by Soma CapitalSacramento · $100K – $300K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · somacap.com · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

How we know: Uncorrelated Ventures's portfolio page · Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Y Combinatorlisted by Y CombinatorSan Francisco · $500K

How we know: the Y Combinator directory · open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Abacus Capital GroupreportedNew York

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

AC VenturesreportedJakarta · $100K – $5M

How we know: techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us

AccelreportedPalo Alto · $500K – $100M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

ArchetypereportedNew York · $100K – $10M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

AVVreportedHo Chi Minh City · $250K – $2M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

C2 VenturesreportedNew York · $100K – $500K

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Charge VCreportedNew York · $250K – $750K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

DefinitionreportedNew York

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

DVCreportedRotterdam

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Extreme Venture PartnersreportedToronto · $182.5K – $1.1M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Hana VenturesreportedSeoul

How we know: techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us

Hustle FundreportedSan Carlos · $150K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

ICT Capitalreported

How we know: techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us

Index VenturesreportedSan Francisco · $540K – $10.8M

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Isomer CapitalreportedLondon

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

On DeckreportedSan Francisco

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Pareto HoldingsreportedSan Francisco · $100K – $5M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Partners Investment Co. Ltd.reportedSeoul

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Recursion Venturesreported

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

RTP GlobalreportedNew York · $1M – $15M

How we know: techcrunch.com · Not right? Tell us

SOSVreportedNew York · $30K – $550K

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Tango.vcreportedRedwood City · $50K – $250K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Teamworthy VenturesreportedNew York

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

TechstarsreportedBoulder · $220K

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Tiger Global ManagementreportedNew York · $1M – $100M

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Toubkal Partnersreported

How we know: open dataset · 5k.vc investor directory · Not right? Tell us

Twenty Two VenturesreportedPalo Alto · $50K – $250K

How we know: Y Combinator's founder network · Not right? Tell us

Also in the syndicate · 4

Affirma CapitalleadEDB Investment (EDBI)Momentum Venture CapitalSequoia Capital India

Funding

SEC filings, press & company announcements

Undisclosed amountSeries ANov 2022
Source ↗
Undisclosed amountSeries BFeb 2022
Affirma Capital (lead), AC Ventures, EDB Investment (EDBI), Hana Ventures, ICT Capital, Momentum Venture Capital, RTP Global, Sequoia Capital India
Source ↗

Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.

Related companies · 10

Hugging FaceHugging Face is a collaboration platform that hosts and provides access to machine learning models, datasets, and applications. It offers both open-source tools for the ML community and paid compute and enterprise solutions for teams building AI applications.

MergentMergent provided infrastructure for background jobs and workflow execution, offering high-reliability job scheduling and queueing services for developers. The company has been acquired by Resend as of 2025.

ModalModal provides a cloud platform that lets developers define compute, hardware, and application logic in Python and deploy to the cloud, with fast-booting containers and autoscaling GPUs. It targets AI and ML workloads such as inference, model training, and large-scale parallel processing.

ArroyoArroyo builds a stream processing engine designed for cloud environments and ease of use, enabling real-time data processing for companies building real-time applications. The platform serves organizations needing to process data with low latency without the need for specialized streaming infrastructure teams.

DataCampDataCamp is a learning platform for teams that teaches data and AI skills through hands-on coursework accessible via web browser and mobile app. It serves enterprise customers and development teams seeking to build technical capabilities.

Sails Co.The Sails Company develops open-source web and mobile frameworks alongside professional services for server-side development using JavaScript and Node.js. They offer consulting, design, and implementation support to help developers and organizations build enterprise-grade applications more efficiently.

NVIDIANVIDIA designs GPUs, AI computing hardware, and software platforms for AI development, data centers, autonomous vehicles, and robotics, serving developers, researchers, and enterprises. Its offerings include AI models, power architecture for AI factories, and compute infrastructure used across industries such as manufacturing, healthcare, and automotive.

FreestyleFreestyle provides Linux virtual machines that provision in milliseconds with integrated version control, designed for running distributed agents at scale. The platform offers full KVM support, real root access, and nested virtualization capabilities for agent-based workloads.

OpenAIOpenAI is an AI research and deployment company focused on developing artificial general intelligence (AGI) with emphasis on safety and beneficial outcomes for humanity.

Thunder ComputeThunder Compute develops GPU virtualization software that improves utilization of graphics processing units in data centers. The company targets cloud providers and enterprises seeking to increase computational capacity without additional hardware investment.

Companies working in the same space as Beam.

Legal entities · 1

corporate structure

Smartshare, Inc.

In the news

Beam - Open Source Modal Alternativeycombinator.com · Nov 2025

Frequently asked questions

What does Beam do?: Beam is a cloud platform for developers to build and ship AI products without managing infrastructure, servers, or containers. It provides compute resources including GPU workloads and sandboxes that scale automatically.
Who founded Beam?: Beam was founded by Eli Mernit, Luke Lombardi in 2021.
Who are Beam's investors?: Beam's investors include Alumni Ventures, Soma Capital, Uncorrelated Ventures, Y Combinator, Abacus Capital Group, AC Ventures, Accel, Archetype and 23 more.
Where is Beam headquartered?: Beam is headquartered in New York City, US.