AI-powered platform delivers real-time air quality data

The company aims to address the air quality health crisis, which is thought to cause 10 million deaths every year

Spotted:  Polish cleantech business Airly, Inc has raised €3.3 million in a funding round to scale its AI-powered air quality platform. The platform will allow for global access to real-time and historical air quality data. 

Airly’s services consist of supplying its customers with enough sensors to provide real-time, hyper-local reports on air quality. Over 600 local governments and cities across Asia and Europe already use Airly, and the company will soon open offices in the UK and US. According to Forbes, there used to be only one sensor monitoring pollution in the city of Jakarta. Now, thanks to Airly, there are 100. 

To measure key pollutants, a laser is used for particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) and an electrochemical method for NO2, O3, SO2 and CO gases. Collaboration with mobility companies is also taking place to use sensor-equipped cars and scooters for even better air-quality tracking. 

Firstminute Capital led the funding round — an early-stage venture fund based in London, backed by 30 unicorn founders and global strategics.  According to EU startups, there was also participation from a number of angel investors, including Uber founder Garrett Camp, founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED David Rowan, and Ferry Heilemann, co-founder of Leaders for Climate Action.  

Airly CEO and co-founder Wiktor Warchałowski said that “Polluted air is a plague on our health – it’s like a pandemic in slow motion. Improving air quality needs to be at the core of the world’s post-pandemic rebuild and Airly is the first step to pollution-free cities. With this funding, we can expand our global footprint to support even more cities, enterprises and communities to repair the air and empower them with data and actionable insights.” 

Once the company improves their environmental intelligence platform and algorithms, the remaining funds will be used to expand its team in several countries, including new offices in the UK and US. By the end of this year, the company aims to have doubled its employees to 70 people. 

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