BEMI: A New Venture for Universe Alumni to Apply Developer Infrastructure Insights

Bemi, a software startup founded by two Canadians and based in San Francisco, is focused on optimizing how back-end developers utilize databases for event-driven systems. The company has recently announced that it has secured nearly $1.2 million CAD in funding to advance its initial efforts and expand its engineering team in Canada.

In September, Bemi raised $872,000 in pre-seed financing, led by Night Capital, with contributions from Mucker Capital, Niche Capital, Materialized View Capital, and angel investors, including Monica Sarbu, the founder of Xata. This funding will support Bemi's product development initiatives. In addition, the startup previously raised $309,000 in unannounced initial funding from Mucker and AngelList in October 2023, totaling nearly $1.2 million when combined with the recent investment.

Bemi was founded in 2023 by CEO Arjun Lall and CTO Evgeny Li, both of whom previously worked together at Universe, a Toronto-based event platform acquired by Ticketmaster in 2015. Their goal is to create an automatic audit trail for PostgreSQL (Postgres), a widely-used open-source database management system. Lall envisions Bemi becoming the standard platform for tracking data changes for businesses that operate on Postgres. He emphasized that the open-source nature of their software will allow companies to monitor data changes without the need for extensive engineering resources to build and maintain similar infrastructure in-house.

The founders have a robust background in software engineering and have faced similar challenges related to database infrastructure throughout their careers. Lall noted that Li has previously built data-tracking infrastructure at AngelList, managing assets worth $124 billion, and created open-source data libraries for prominent companies such as Netflix, GitLab, and Alibaba. Lall himself has experience working on developer infrastructure at Meta and spent time at Nextdoor as a software engineer.

Recognizing the significant challenges that many large companies face in managing their database infrastructure, Arjun Lall and Evgeny Li founded Bemi with the intention of providing a much-needed solution. These companies often allocate substantial time, effort, and financial resources to develop internal systems for handling data changes, only to find themselves overwhelmed by the complexity and expertise required. This struggle can lead to inefficiencies and missed opportunities as they divert focus from their primary business objectives.

Bemi aims to alleviate these burdens by offering a standardized and efficient platform for tracking data changes, particularly for businesses using PostgreSQL, a widely adopted open-source database management system. By leveraging Bemi’s innovative solution, companies can streamline their data management processes without the need to invest heavily in their own engineering resources or expertise. This allows organizations to redirect their attention to core operations, enhancing overall productivity and performance.

The founders’ shared experiences in the tech industry have shaped their understanding of these challenges. Having encountered similar obstacles in their previous roles, Lall and Li are well aware of the frustration companies face when attempting to build custom solutions internally. They realized that many organizations spend months or even years trying to create effective data-tracking systems, often failing due to the intricacies involved.

With Bemi, Lall and Li aspire to provide not just a product, but a comprehensive solution that empowers businesses to navigate the complexities of data management with ease. By standardizing the process of tracking data changes, Bemi not only simplifies operations but also enables companies to gain better insights from their data, ultimately fostering innovation and growth. The startup’s vision is to become the go-to platform for organizations relying on PostgreSQL, ensuring they can efficiently manage their data changes and harness the full potential of their databases.