Beam, a British climate startup which designed AI and robotics to power the offshore wind industry, has shut down and appointed administrators, months after announcing major expansion plans.
The Bristol-based startup had sought to use robotics to automate offshore wind farms, aiming to cut the time needed to service renewable energy systems, thereby bringing down their cost.
“The company that over 200 incredibly talented people gave their all to — delivering technology to drive the energy transition — is no more,” Helen Batt, VP of marketing at the company, wrote on Linkedin.
The company filed to appoint administrators on Thursday. Its head of talent, James Reynolds, wrote on Linkedin that all employees had been made redundant.
Sifted has approached Beam for comment.
Beam was formed in September last year through the merger of two existing companies: Rovco, which was founded in 2016, and Vaarst, founded in 2021.
Prior to the merger, Vaarst raised a $20m Series B round from In-Q-Tel, Legal & General, Equinor Ventures and Foresight Group. Rovco had raised an undisclosed amount from angel investors, including William Tunstall-Pedoe, the creator of Amazon Alexa.
Sifted understands that the company was looking to raise more than £100m in new funds in late 2024.
When Beam announced the merger of the two companies in September, the company said it planned to hire 200 new employees across the next year: 150 in the UK and 50 people across the US and Asia.
The company had offices in New York, Aberdeen and Edinburgh, as well as Bristol.
Read the orginal article: https://sifted.eu/articles/beam-robotics-shuts-down/
