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Startups

“Self-therapy” startups are blooming in the ‘moderate mental health’ space • ZebethMedia

Mental health problems – and the tech products which aim at them – come in all shapes and sizes. There are ‘mental wellness’ products like Calm and Headspace. On the more severe side of things there is Cerebral, Betterhelp, and, of course, marketplaces for actual, card-carrying therapists. If you have more moderate mental health problems there are players such as Noom (raised $657.3M) with NoomMood, NASDAQ-listed Talkspace with Lasting, and Youper (raised $3.5M) which offers self-guided CBT therapy. Also in the CBT field there are chatbots like Woebot (raised $123.3M) and Journals like Alan Mind that leverage CBT. In this ‘moderate mental health’ problems space is also Bloom, a New York-based digital mental health “self-therapy” startup that claims it can help with mild to moderate mental health problems. The startup says its users become “their own therapist” by using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) via video self-therapy sessions, to address stress, anxiety, and sleep issues. All the sessions are devised by Dr. Seth Gillihan, author on CBT and Bloom’s Head of Therapy and CBT. It’s now secured a $8m seed round, led by Berlin-based VC Target Global. Also participating was Elysian Park Ventures, Angelpad and Sequoia Scout, plus founders as Scott Chacon (Github), Dominik Richter (HelloFresh), Niklas Jansen (Blinkist), Roland Grenke (Dubsmash), Joshua Cornelius & Mehmet Yilmaz (Freeletics), Ryan Bubinski (Codecademy),  Mariya Nurislamova (Scentbird). So a pretty European-band line-up of Angels. Leon Mueller, Bloom’s CEO and co-founder says “Bloom is doing for therapy what Calm and Headspace have done for meditation – making it affordable, accessible, mainstream and everyday” (he said in a statement). He and cofounder Daniel Lohse say they got the idea for Bloom after moving to New York last year and each trying to find therapists.

Use IRS Code Section 1202 to sell your multi-million dollar startup tax-free • ZebethMedia

Vincent Aiello Contributor Spencer Fane attorney and business owner Vincent Aiello helps businesses solve legal problems to secure revenue flow and reduce business risks. Whoever said you can’t have your cake and eat it too should have called their accountants and lawyers first. These professionals often receive inquiries from founders, equity investment firms and venture capitalists looking for ways to save on or avoid capital gains taxes on future business sales. Both lawyers and accountants encourage clients to examine the tax savings offered by setting up a Qualified Small Business (QSB) C-Corporation at the initial business formation stage. Using a QSB can eliminate capital gains tax due on the future business sale if the company is established and stock issued pursuant to Internal Revenue Code Section 1202. Many startups often simply default to a robotic use of S-Corporations, partnerships, and LLCs, but savvy tech founders should consider the excellent long-term tax savings afforded by IRS Code Section 1202. This article provides a general overview concerning the major requirements and tax savings provided by forming a startup entity structured to maximize the capital gains tax exclusion in IRC 1202. IRC 1202 excludes capital gains tax realized on the sale of qualified small business stock (QSBS) of non-corporate taxpayers if the stock has been held for more than five years. QSBS is stock in a C-Corporation originally issued after August 10, 1993, and acquired by the taxpayer in exchange for money, property or as compensation for services. The corporation may not have gross assets in excess of $50 million in fair market value at the time the stock is issued. The IRC 1202 gain exclusion allows stockholders, founders, private equity and venture capitalists to claim a minimum $10 million federal income tax exclusion on capital gains for the sale of QSBS. Prior to 2010, only part of the capital gain on QSBS was excluded from taxable gain under section 1202 and the portion excluded from gain was an item of tax preference subject to alternative minimum tax. This rule was changed for stock acquired after September 27, 2010, and before January 1, 2015, such that the gain on such stock was fully excluded and no portion of the gain was an item of tax preference. This change was made permanent by the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015, signed into law on December 18, 2015. Given the changes to IRC 1202, it constitutes a significant tax savings benefit for entrepreneurs and small business investors. However, the effect of the exclusion ultimately depends on when the stock was acquired, the trade or business being operated, and various other factors. Qualifying for Section 1202’s capital gains tax exclusion takes careful planning The critical plan to be determined at the outset is the future stock sale, which must be structured as a sale of QSBS for federal income tax purposes to achieve capital gains tax exclusion. This can be a challenge, as buyers typically prefer asset acquisitions permitting a step-up in basis and future goodwill amortization. In many business sales today, buyers expect stockholders to roll over a portion of their equity, or receive stock or membership interests in a new entity as part of the transaction. Imprecise planning will cause the QSB stockholders to forfeit the QSBS gain exclusion and owe tax on the sale. This can happen if there is an impermissible equity rollover to an LP, or receipt of LLC equity.

Perfekto bags $1.1M to find homes for imperfect produce in Mexico • ZebethMedia

Over a third of food ends up wasted across the globe, with 6% of that occurring in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. Among that waste, the majority of it, around 70%, occurs prior to the consumer stage. This is where Perfekto believes its subscription box of imperfect food can help. Launched in 2021, the Mexico-based company works with over 70 producers to “rescue” food and delivers it to consumers. Subscribers used to get a “surprise box,” but can now personalize their box and choose how much of each type of produce they want. On the backend, the company developed software that automates routing and logistics. In the past year, the company was part of Y Combinator’s summer 2021 batch, grew to over 3,000 active monthly subscribers and reached $1 million in annual run rate, Jan Heinvirta, co-founder and CEO, told ZebethMedia. Subscribers average two boxes per month. “We saw an expensive problem that needed urgent solution,” he added. “We felt like it’s time to do this because no more time should be wasted. We also saw a trend going in the direction of consumers being more responsible.” It’s an expensive problem indeed, with the cost of food waste estimated to be around $940 billion each year. And that’s while 9.7 million people across Latin America have food insecurity. Add to that, grocery delivery businesses in the business-to-consumer space are traditionally a capital-intensive business. Even highly venture-backed companies find it difficult to reach profitability. Heinvirta said it is possible to build a grocery delivery business with positive unit economics. Since December, Perfekto also grew over 10x across all key performance indicators and rescued 1 million pounds of produce. “We have been very capital efficient, reaching $1 million in ARR having spent less than $1 million,” he added. “This is possible thanks to our subscription model, efficient logistics model and strong organic growth.” Heinvirta, who grew up in a Swiss farmer village and has a background in financial services, moved to Mexico and met Anahí Sosa, the daughter of a citrus producer who told ZebethMedia that she saw how imperfections affected her father’s business. She went on to lead Uber’s grocery initiative in Latin America and later helped launch Cornershop in Costa Rica. Together Heinvirta and Sosa, chief operating officer, started Perfekto. They recently brought on Juan Andrade as the third co-founder and chief supply chain officer. Andrade was a logistics advisor to the company since it started and previously led Walmart’s e-commerce logistics operations in Mexico. Perfekto co-founders Jan Heinvirta, Anahí Sosa, and Juan Andrade (Image credit: Perfekto) The company is among a group of startups that want to save produce and other food from ending up in landfills. Today, it announces $1.1 million in pre-seed funding to expand its program across Mexico City. Over the past year we’ve seen a number of them also get venture capital backing for their approaches. For example, Full Harvest raised $23 million in Series B funding at the end of 2021 for its business-to-business marketplace that connects produce buyers and sellers so they can quickly close deals on surplus or imperfect crops. “We have a lot of interest from other cities, and I can certainly plan our international expansion, but we’re focused on Mexico City right now because it is so big,” Heinvirta said. “We plan to reach $2 million in annual run rate within the next six to eight months, and there is an opportunity to grow as much as we can.” Perfekto is also looking at some new opportunities beyond fruits and vegetables and is working with large consumer packaged goods companies that are interested in partnering to reduce food waste for other items that have a short shelf life or damaged packaging. There is also increased interest coming from businesses that are subscribing to a box of fruit each week, he added. The company just launched a crowdfunding campaign, but in the meantime, Heinvirta intends to plug the new capital into three areas: improve operations and technology, expand its catalog of products to offer customers more variety and growth in the B2B space.

Colorado-based SpringTime Ventures pivots its focus for new $25 million fund

There are a lot of changes afoot for SpringTime Ventures as it looks to deploy its freshly closed second fund. For one, the Denver-based firm is pivoting away from its original focus on its home state of Colorado, despite being the only local fund in two of the state’s 10 unicorn companies. It’s also now able to expand its team thanks to raising three times as much money for Fund II, giving SpringTime enough cash on hand to allow its partners to finally pay themselves a real salary. So far, these changes have proved positive. SpringTime is announcing a $25 million second fund to cut checks ranging from $400,000 to $600,000 into U.S.-based seed-stage software companies. The fund was raised from an LP base of 120 entities that largely consisted of high-net-worth individuals. This latest fund allows SpringTime managing partners Matt Blomstedt and Rich Maloy to ditch their consulting work to focus on investing full-time, and actually get paid for doing so, overcoming a financial hurdle that plagues many first-time fund managers but isn’t spoken about often. The firm was also able to add a principal and two additional partners. The new pool of capital will be invested across startups in sectors including fintech, insurtech, healthcare, logistics and supply chain. While Fund I largely was deployed into companies across these same sectors, Fund II’s thesis represents a deviation from where the firm first focused: filling a funding void for startups in Colorado. Blomstedt told ZebethMedia that he originally got the idea for SpringTime after moving to Colorado in 2015 after a career in the energy business in Texas. He started attending happy hours to get to know people in his new community and met a bunch of startup founders who all shared the same problem. Blomstedt saw an opportunity. “At the time, there just wasn’t a dedicated seed fund really in Colorado and the consistent theme was [local founders] were having to go to the coast or maybe to Austin, Texas, or Chicago to raise seed capital,” Blomstedt said. “I started to become pretty convicted in kind of an opportunity and the need for a seed fund in Colorado.” He decided to raise a proof-of-concept fund to back these startups. The first fund was a slog to raise, he said. He garnered $8 million, which the firm invested in 35 companies including future Colorado unicorns SonderMind (telehealth) and Veho (logistics). While the fund isn’t sticking to its original thesis of backing companies in the Centennial State, Blomstedt said that most of their existing portfolio company would fall under this new strategy anyway. The above two examples back that up. Plus, he thinks this distinction will help them better leverage their LP network — 77% of Fund I’s LPs reupped for the new approach. “They send deal flow or they help us evaluate deals, so we started just kind of gravitating toward those industries,” Blomstedt said. “It also just made us better; we can make quicker, sound decisions in a much shorter period of time by having this focus and this network around us.” He added that they can be a value add later to the firm’s portfolio companies. SpringTime also brought on a handful of operating partners for Fund II for the same reason. Now, after raising across two very different market conditions — Blomstedt said it took about the same time to raise the first $22 million and the final couple million — it’s time to deploy.

a16z-backed Tellus wants to help people use their savings to become real estate investors • ZebethMedia

Crypto is not having a good week, as Bitcoin crashed to under $17,000 — its lowest level in two years. The stock market continues to post declines as layoffs abound. Meanwhile, inflation recently reached a 40-year high. For those looking for a safe place to park their cash and actually earn a decent amount of interest on their savings above the national average APY of just 0.20%, the options are not exactly plentiful. Enter Tellus. The six-year-old fintech startup claims it can offer people yields of 3.85% to 4.5% on their savings balances by using the money to fund certain U.S. single-family-home loans.  With mortgage interest rates having more than doubled since a year ago, one might think that this is not the best time to be a digital mortgage lender. But co-founder Rocky Lee believes his company’s unique business model sets it apart from other such lenders in the space.  For one, the company has a very niche offering. It targets existing home owners who wish to upgrade to larger homes without selling the homes they live in, which makes it difficult for them to get approved for loans by traditional mortgage lenders. If it sounds complicated, well, it is. Lee breaks it down as such: “The home they [Tellus’ borrowers] buy typically is not the starter home. What they are seeking is called a super jumbo loan, which is designed for people that actually don’t have a ready to use mortgage solution. And we provide that solution for those categories of people.” So where does the savings part come in? Tellus’ interest rates are typically two basis points higher than the standard conforming mortgage. For example, in today’s market if a loan’s rate is 7%, Tellus will charge 9% — a premium because it claims it’s offering to lend money to American single-family-home borrowers “in prime cities” who would otherwise not be able to get such loans. Because it is using its retail customers’ savings deposits to fund these loans at a 3.85% to 4.5% yield, Tellus makes its money on the spread of what it’s paying out in interest versus what it’s charging its borrowers. Its retail customers are able to earn interest on a daily basis, while getting help with things such as budgeting funds and setting financial goals. Tellus says it promotes financial literacy by quizzing users on financial terms, for example, and then rewarding them with higher interest rates. At the same time, the company touts that it is enabling these consumers to invest in real estate in a way they would not have otherwise been able to while having the ability to withdraw their money at any time. While its strategy might sound risky, Lee told ZebethMedia that Tellus utilizes “very strict underwriting criteria” and has not yet seen any defaults because the majority of its borrowers go on to soon after refinance their loans at more favorable terms. Since its 2016 inception, Tellus has lent out more than $80 million with an average loan size of $2 million. It partners with mortgage brokers to find borrowers. And it finds its retail clients via channels such as Instagram, TikTok and Google. Since the company is mobile-first, it focuses on people using a smartphone. Tellus allows anyone in the U.S. to use its savings software. It only lends in California because that’s where it has a lending license and partnerships. Despite a challenging real estate market, the company says it grew its revenue by 55% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter of 2022, according to co-founder T Zhu. And earlier this year, it raised $16 million in a seed round of funding led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and with participation from All-Stars Investments, Alumni Ventures, Decent Capital, Vectr Ventures, West Arrow and Westwood Ventures. Co-founders of YouTube, Lime and Sereno Group Real Estate also participated in the financing, which followed a $10 million SAFE. The remote-first, Cupertino, California-based startup is emerging from stealth as it seeks to build out its engineering, marketing and product teams, adding to its headcount of 50. It also plans to build upon its recently launched new offering aimed at SMBs. 

General Atlantic values media tech Amagi at $1.4 billion in new funding • ZebethMedia

Amagi, which offers cloud broadcast and targeted advertising software to scores of media and entertainment giants, has raised a large new funding round as it looks to expand its tech offerings and invest in AI-powered personalization stack. General Atlantic led a new round of over $100 million, which included about $20 million in secondary buybacks, the New York and Bengaluru-headquartered startup said in a statement. The Series F funding has propelled Amagi’s valuation to $1.4 billion, up from $100 million in March this year. The startup, which has raised about $350 million to date (according to insight firm Tracxn), said it crossed the $100 million annualized recurring revenue (ARR) for the second time in the quarter that ended in September. Amagi’s platform allows its clients to create content that can be monetized and distributed via broadcast TV and streaming TV platforms such as The Roku Channel, Samsung TV Plus and Pluto TV. The company already supports more than 2,000 channels on its platform across dozens of countries including Australia, Germany and South Korea — markets where it recently expanded. The startup — whose backers include Accel, Norwest Venture Partners, Avataar Ventures, and Premji Invest — told ZebethMedia in an earlier interview that it has simplified its tech stack to a point that even a client without much technology resources can use and scale with it. Amagi said at the time that it had helped customers bring down their operational cost savings by up to 40%, compared to traditional delivery models as ad impressions shot up by up to 10 times. Its clients include NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox Network, ABS-CBN, A+E Networks UK, beIN Sports, Curiosity Stream, Gannett, Gusto TV and Vice Media. “We have set ourselves the ambitious goal of developing futuristic technology solutions that can help media companies deliver premium personalised content and engaging advertising experiences to their consumers,” said Baskar Subramanian, Co-founder and CEO of Amagi. Amagi plans to deploy the fresh funds to expand its infrastructure offerings and invest in AI-driven personalisation, advertising, and live streaming solutions, it said. “Amagi has demonstrated a consistent ability to anticipate key trends, acting as an early mover in the rise of free ad-supported streaming TV. The company has also championed the use of cloud technology to optimise results for their broadcast and streaming partners globally,” said Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director and Head of India at General Atlantic, in a statement.

In times of crisis, fintech startups should take the long view instead of hibernating • ZebethMedia

Vadym Synegin Contributor Vadym Synegin is a Ukrainian impact entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor in fintech and crypto projects with more than 15 years’ experience as an entrepreneur in Europe and the UAE. More posts by this contributor 5 reasons why Ukraine’s fintech sector is growing despite war The fintech industry is currently facing several macroeconomic problems, including global economic inflation, skyrocketing costs of living, companies reducing their workforce, and a possible recession on the horizon, not to mention the war in Ukraine. All of these factors have caused fintech M&A exits to decline 30% in Q2 2022, the lowest point since Q3 2020. This is not the first time the economic climate has worsened so quickly. But when we look at the industry’s overall performance compared to previous years, the current downturn is not that different. What can founders do to help their companies prosper during this period? Hire high-performing talent The worsening financial climate is causing leading fintech companies to suspend hiring or reduce their workforce to avoid cost overruns. The industry saw 1,619 job cuts in May, compared to 440 in the first four months of the year. Personnel losses have also affected the Ukrainian startup ecosystem. More than one in ten startup employees in the country has had to leave their firms since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, and since then, the number of enterprises with up to five team members has risen, while companies with bigger teams are dwindling. Nearly every founder would agree that layoffs are a hard but necessary decision to make in times of crisis, as payroll spend can be redirected towards growth or maintaining a runway. But if you take the long view and look past the current downturn, it’s likely your startup will have higher chances of survival if you hold on to specialized talent. And sometimes, hiring a new employee can bring in a new perspective that may help you detect problems within your firm. Ukraine has a huge pool of talent, and thousands of specialists are currently searching for an exciting project to join. So instead of battening down the hatches as you face this crisis, consider it an opportunity to strengthen your company with dispersed, high-performing talent. Develop and prove the quality of your product Crises are also times of opportunities — you just need to look carefully to spot a golden egg. Crises give founders a chance to focus on building robust products since times like these usually highlight problems that are in need of a viable, long-term solution, and startups can go heads-down on building rather than focusing on incessant growth. The brutal truth is that tough markets also clean up the hundreds of startups without a solid product cluttering the market. This gives top companies a chance to develop an even more extensive set of products and services. Develop a solid strategy To run a business sustainably, founders must direct business development and manage risk well. That’s why during times of crisis, startups that have focused on developing solid business strategies and products usually emerge to win the market from those that didn’t. I know it’s hard to focus on developing a strategy when there are so many external factors affecting your company. But the fact is that companies that focus on strengthening their business plan and solidifying their strategy have a higher chance of bouncing back and coming out stronger than before compared to those who hibernate. Individuals and businesses thrive in the face of crises by managing their resources, analyzing the situation they’re in, and recognizing potential opportunities regardless of the amount of noise and chaos around them. Tough times allow teams that set big goals to recharge and look at things from a different angle. For instance, you might as yourself: What is the unique proposition of the product? What can we do to make the most out of the current market? What can we do to catapult our product even farther when the market recovers? Despite all the setbacks, founders can excel in business by following three rules during a crisis: strengthen your staff, develop a better product, and work to solidify a business strategy. While these aren’t laws or panaceas for all problems, I’ve found them to be very effective during rough times.

Blnk, a fintech that provides instant consumer credit in Egypt, raises $32M in debt and equity • ZebethMedia

Credit card penetration in Egypt is low, with just over 4 million cards used in a population of more than 100 million people. As such, people in the country have little or no access to credit, given the other few options that exist in the market. One of these options, consumer loans, is being explored by Blnk, a fintech launched last October. The digital lending platform partners with Egyptian merchants, allowing them to underwrite customers at the point of sale and provide them with finance to purchase items such as electronics, furniture and automotive services via 6-36 month installments. Blnk said it has raised $32 million, money split across different stages and funding types: $12.5 million pre-seed and seed equity rounds (led by Abu Dhabi’s Emirates International Investment Company [EIIC], Sawari Ventures and other investors), $11.2 million debt financing and $8.3 million securitized bond issuance. It plans to “accelerate financial inclusion within underserved communities across the country” and support its “AI-powered” lending infrastructure.  Customers who use Blnk at the point of sale need a National ID for starters, after which they can get financing in three minutes, according to the company. “It’s a very fast service,” said Amr Sultan, co-founder and CEO, in an interview with ZebethMedia. “And by being there at the point of sale, we help increase conversion rates and provide affordability products to significantly underserved populations. We’re heavily focused on financial inclusion, especially on how to underwrite people who don’t have a credit history.” Sultan, who started the company with Tarek Elsheikh, said Blnk does this via its proprietary credit underwriting system and risk-scoring model that assesses the customers’ riskiness and ability to service their debts. So far, Blnk claims to have disbursed over $20 million in loans via a network of more than 300 merchants (half of which are active) to over 60,000 customers who pay an average of 2.6% monthly interest. Joseph Iskander, the head of investment at lead investor EIIC, speaking on the investment: “We are convinced that the Egyptian market and its startup ecosystem present a compelling opportunity for regional and international investors, and we are committed to identifying and investing in value accretive businesses. We are pleased to partner with Blnk to drive financial inclusion and economic development in Egypt, and we look forward to working with the team to achieve their goals.” Other fintechs that offer loans and other financial services in Egypt include MNT-Halan, MoneyFellows and Khazna. 

Airly fights air pollution with a network of affordable sensors • ZebethMedia

Cleantech startup Airly wants to help communities around the world improve air quality with affordable sensors and software that provides actionable insights. Based in London and Krakow, the startup announced today it has raised $5.5 million. The round was led by firstminute capital and Pi Labs, with participation from returning investors like the Sir Richard Branson Family Office, AENU and Untitled. New investors include Cal Henderson, one of Slack’s co-founders, Snowflake co-founder Marcin Zukowki and institutional investors Semapa Next and TO Ventures. This brings Airly’s total raised to $8.8 million since March 2021. Airly is currently used by more than 500 local authorities in over 40 countries, with 5,000 of its sensors covering a total of 40,000 active measurement points. Cities include Warsaw, where Airly has installed 165 sensors, which the company says is the largest air quality monitoring network in Europe. It also has networks of sensors in United Kingdom and Indonesia cities. So far, Airly has struck trategic partnerships with JCDecaux, NHS, NILU (Norwegian Institute for Air Research). It is also partnered with the DivAirCity project, which is funded by European Union’s Horizon 2020. Airly plans to build a dashboard that will allow users to monitor more data and get insights on how air quality is affecting health, and how to improve it. It will include a report generator, insights, impact tracker and city ranking. An online map and mobile apps already lets people in a community check the air quality around them based on Airly’s data. Airly started after co-founder and CEO Wiktor Warchalowski and two of his friends at AGH Technical University of Krakow were training for a marathon. “During the course of our training, we found it hard to cope with the intensity and realized it was down to air pollution,” he told ZebethMedia. “So we devised a system using our own air quality sensors to tell us where the cleanest air was and we used those spaces for our training.” Airly founders Michał Misiek, Wiktor Warchałowski and Aleksander Konior After realizing that other people had the same problem, they started building the Airly platform to monitor real-time air quality. State-owned air quality monitoring stations are usually only affordable for large cities, Warchalowski explained, and since they are expensive, there are often only three to five covering large expanses of land. Not only that, but they typically have a delay of several hours in reporting data. Airly wants to solve that problem with affordable sensors that are easy to install, so one can be on every street in a city. They also send data to Airly’s app every five minutes, so air quality can be monitored in real time. The platform’s insights help communities gauge real-time health risks of poor air quality, based on WHO standards or illegal emissions. It analyzes trends to identify sources of pollution, and gives recommendations on how to improve air quality. For example, it can tell communities if they should implement low-emission zones, solid fuel bans and green school streets. It also tracks improvements once those measures are made. A couple examples of how Airly has been used include the #LetSchoolsBreathe campaign in the United Kingdom, where Airly’s monitors were installed in 50 schools. It’s also helped a large city in Central Europe get evidence that fuel combustion-free zones were working as planned. Communities have used data collected by Airly to lobby local governments to take air quality action. “On a macro scale, our data has repeatedly become an incentive to change local policy in terms of reducing the use of solid fuels, car traffic or influencing local polluters,” Warchalowski said. “Airly supports organizations in their journey to eliminate pollution, improve air quality and protect public health as the data is the first step toward pollution-free cities and communities. You can’t control what you can’t measure.” Airly currently has 500 paying customers and uses a “sensing-as-a-service” model. Customers pay a yearly subscription based on how many nodes they access, and pricing starts from $540 per node per year. There’s a one time setup fee for installing devices. One of Airly’s main competitors is Breezometer, which was ( acquired in September by GOogle. Breezometer’s competitive advantage is the breadth of its air quality network coverage, which stretches across more than 100 countries and has a resolution of five meters. But Breezometer’s is not able to provide the hyperlocal insights that Airly can, said Warchalowski. Another competitor is Clarity, which is also building an end-to-end air quality and control platform with software and hardware. But Airly has a wider set of pollutant measures and it also delivers recommendations based on data. Airly will use its new funding on research and development and to expand into new markets. In a statement about the funding, Founders Fund and firstminute capital co-founder and executive chairman Brent Hoberman said, “Trailblazers in London are showing how real-time local air quality data is the catalyst for taking action to make our urban spaces healthier and more sustainable. I expect many cities and local authorities to follow their leadership, starting with more precise and local data. Airly is at the forefront of building this data infrastructure and our fight against air pollution, and we’re very proud to continue our support by co-leading their Series A.”

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