Startup Summary

“Beamlink produces the BentoCell, a cell tower the size of a lunch box, which provides affordable cellular service where traditional towers cannot.”

Half the world lacks Internet access, and there’s a huge income and gender gap there too – 60% of men are online compared to only 40% of women.  Additionally, after a natural disaster, wealthier communities are always brought online the fastest.  Hurricane María hit Puerto Rico in 2017 – over 5 years later, there are still communities without stable Internet.  To address this, Beamlink designed the BentoCell, an easy to use, portable cell tower the size of a lunch box.  It can be set up with the push of a button, can mesh together with other BentoCells, and can operate completely off the grid, making it easy for entire communities to get online in a matter of minutes.

About Founder | LinkedIn |

Mateo started his first nonprofit in 9th grade, and is an active member of the Los Angeles hackathon community. In undergrad, jaded by social media app after social media app that kept winning each competition and kept being funded, he left that world to study Archaeology, Math, and Physics.  He later found social entrepreneurship, and fast forward to now as a full time social entrepreneur he is bridging his experience from the Archaeology and Tech Entrepreneurial worlds to understand the complex intersections of culture and community and then create high tech solutions to address identified inequities. Currently,  he’s focused on addressing the digital divide, with the goal of empowering people to get online, and provide the foundations for Internet enabled social ventures around the world to connect with the populations that need their solutions most.