Beam, a fintech company for contractors, raises $4 million in seed funding

The five-month-old company has big plans for the housing and contractor industry

Beam, a new startup looking to help general contractors with all things finance, has announced a $4 million seed funding round.

The funding round was led by Accel, with participation from Susa, Wischoff Ventures, and a "big group" of angel investors.

The company is only five months old, with both the founder and lead investor previously working at Stripe. Stripe is a payment processing platform used by many retail and online businesses globally.

Beam's founder, Adam Eagle, took that knowledge and ventured out to alleviate the pains contractors deal with on a day-to-day basis.

More specifically, that means helping with both getting paid and paying out to subcontractors. The company's platform will let users quickly track accounts, manage compliance-related documentation, and handle invoicing and payments.

Account tracking is important because, typically, contractors must supply materials and labor to the project before getting paid themselves. This leads to an increased demand for software that can accurately (and quickly) track all incoming payments and outgoing expenses.

Large companies typically have reserves that make this less of an issue, but for SMBs in the industry, this could potentially be a huge help for teams that often have to juggle multiple roles.

Eagle tells TechCrunch, "When you start thinking about the financial situation for these construction businesses, you realize that they are in pretty dire situations — a lot of times they’re waiting to get paid from the client or they have to pay large amounts to subcontractors."

Image: Beam

The founder goes on to mention similar problems exist for subcontractors, noting that subcontractors often pay large amounts up front, with payment often not arriving until weeks (or months) after the project is finished.

With the new seed funding, Beam states it will be using the money "to expand operations and its business reach."