Eight years after selling Sparrow to Google, Dominique Leca is partnering with former Apple Senior Software Engineer Sébastien Métrot to launch Beam, which announces today the closing of a €3 million Seed funding round.
This round, led by Spark Capital (Twitter, Tumblr), includes Alven, as well as C4V, Amaranthine, Tiny Capital, Spetses, together with Zenly cofounder Antoine Martin and Batch cofounder Simon Dawlat.
Beam sets out to offer a new way to collect your thoughts and experience the Internet. “We believe in tools that foster autonomy, encourage inquisitiveness, strengthen personal agency, increase efficiency while acknowledging human pace and drive critical inquiry. We believe knowledge is the essential human project.” says Beam co-founder Dom Leca. “Anytime I was searching into a topic on the web, I grew desperate and frustrated before even starting: I would have to open forty tabs, switch to my note-taking app, and lose the information silo. We’re spending a lot of time on web browsers, but once the window is closed, very little remains”.
To this end, Beam is creating an app that will automatically generate notes summing up and classifying the knowledge you’ve gathered while browsing. These notes could ultimately be shared with other Beam users to help enrich.
Currently in beta, the app is built to be:
– Forthright: under your control and easy to master.
– Proportionate: increase efficiency within the bounds of human aptitudes and pace.
– Autonomy: navigate with intent, hone your thinking and connect the dots.
– Convivial: learn-create-share & contribute to the essential human project.