Summary

Beem is an inclusive AI fintech platform that provides hourly workers with access to emergency lines of funds — as low as $10 — without charging interest or demanding proof of credit history and incomes.

Background

Beem, a public benefit corporation, charges a monthly subscription fee of $2.47 in exchange for instant cash. Once repaid, users can start building towards larger checks and earn trust that can be used to support their creditworthiness. The platform assesses financial health by seamlessly integrating users' existing fintech applications and risk ranking the data via its proprietary AI/ML risk engine. Beem also provides a range of products including risk adjusted auto insurance, tax optimization, dues detection, overdraft protection, and credit monitoring. These product offerings enable Beem to proactively help users manage consumption and tackle inflation, all while using AI to continuously monitor credit scores and appropriately risk rank users. Beem has disbursed over $65M since launch in Sep 2021 using just $3M of its own balance sheet and has recaptured almost all of it back.

Why Cashmere Fund Invested:

Substantial Market Demand:

Poor transaction management is the single point of failure for over 70 million working-class Americans. Low-income individuals, in particular, face limited access to financial support for bill payments in areas related to transportation, healthcare, and housing, leaving them the most vulnerable to overdraft and late fees. Beem addresses these acute financial needs by creating a new system to build trust between lenders and individuals. Beem’s AI fintech stack identifies, acquires, and accurately risk ranks these individuals by giving credit to their consumption habits. As Beem users repay bills, they continue to increase their creditworthiness on the platform — a dynamic that creates resiliency for the company through both positive and negative macro environments.

Founder-market fit:

Beem Founder and CEO, Akshay Krishnaiah, grew up poor and was raised by parents who came from extreme poverty. During this time, Akshay’s mother taught him about consumption smoothing, the concept of creating a balance between spending and saving during different phases of life. This left a lasting impression on Akshay and, following his career at eBay and Paypal, led to the creation of Beem. As a fintech founder, Akshay’s perspective differs from incumbents as he prioritizes a cohort of people who have long been ignored. In addition to Akshay’s empathetic leadership style, he’s skilled in attracting top tier talent and has built a team of seasoned fintech leaders with experience at PayPal, Wally, Citi, Dhani One, and Comviva. Further, Beem has built an impressive list of investors on their cap table, including Massive, Tribe Capital, Village Global, Goodwater Capital, Avesta Fund, and Techstars.

Other Active Investors

Massive, Tribe Capital, Village Global, TASC Ventures, Goodwater Capital, SustainVC, Avesta Fund, Strada Education Network, The Josephine Collective, Overtime VC, Techstars and Kelmhurst