AeroSpec gets a financial boost to improve air quality

Nikunj Dudani (CEO) and Satoshi Takahama (Scientific Expert), who are currently based at the EPFL Innovation Park, are working on a patented and automated Aerosol InfraRed (AIR) Monitor that conducts the chemical composition and source signature analysis of the air through a novel aerosol collector and infrared spectroscopy. According to the startup, this is the first-ever instrument enabling near-real-time infrared spectroscopy of particulate matter using a novel collector design. With the exact chemical composition of the pollution, including its potential source and health effects, the AIR monitor can provide comprehensive and actionable information, allowing data-driven policymaking.

With the incorporation of their startup, AeroSpec aims to address the air pollution environmental challenge, which the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed “the world’s largest single environmental health risk”. A key challenge lies in accurately measuring the different chemical components of aerosol air pollution, identifying emission sources, and understanding the potential health effects. Current methods, which are limited and focus on specific pollution elements are costly and require expert labour for operation. This gap has created a pressing need for a comprehensive and automated monitoring tool.

Aerospec targets three primary markets: aerosol researchers, monitoring agencies, and various industries that need to measure emissions. They aim to capture the 20% import fraction of the multi-billion-dollar air quality monitoring market, showing robust growth in emerging markets. The annual global market for air-quality monitoring is around 5 billion USD and grows about 5% yearly with some markets showing a stronger growth rate of 10% per annum.

The award of CHF 150,000 from Venture Kick will facilitate team expansion and the deployment of resources to produce and sell instruments to initial customers. The investment will also empower the team to streamline sales and expand quickly into the relevant markets, as well as pave the way for their seed fundraising in March.

“The Venture Kick experience has been pivotal in Aerospec’s journey – where the stage 1 award coincided with our market growth and stage 3 with our incorporation. The structure of the program with the Jury Q&A, feedback and Kicker Camps ensures that clear feedback from diverse, relevant, and experienced personnel is accessible to a startup right from the start,” commented Nikunj Dudani. “The team benefits greatly from participating by understanding what questions are important to the market and potential investors and hence in aligning personal motivations too. The advancement that Aerospec has gained along with the Venture Kick stages is surely greatly credited to the entire program and ecosystem, too, as the timely meetings, feedback and, very importantly, focus on future achievements proved to be highly valuable.”

(Press release/RAN)

Image: AeroSpec’s team: CSO Satoshi Takahama and CEO Nikunj Dudani