Welcome to the fifty-third edition of our newsletter, as we are named in the top 100 UK start ups and build up to our second birthday on 23 January! This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.

This week we have been delving into the research on air pollution and pregnancy. As we covered in our article, there is growing evidence about the impact on the mother and unborn child. This can include pre-term births, low birth weight, conditions such as pre-eclampsia and gestational diabetes, and even miscarriage and infant mortality. The Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology has made repeated calls to address this, while universities such as Manchester and Queen Mary are undertaking further research to better understand the linkages. There are a lack of personalised solutions to help people reduce their exposure to pollution, and pregnant women are particularly underserved. We hope to address this through ongoing collaboration with leading health clinics. Please join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.

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Hot off the press

• we were delighted to be named in the Startups.co.uk list of top 100 UK start ups this week! This is the definitive list of the most promising new UK businesses and we are excited to see other starts up from the Imperial College London ecosystem listed too
• we had a successful visit to Lyon organised by Business France to look at partnerships with air quality and health-focused companies in the region
• we have started a series of deep dives into the wealth of data contained in our Annual Report, launched last month. Our first features our analysis on the link between heart rate variability and air pollution exposure.

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Go with us towards clean air

• we continue to try new ways to inform and raise awareness of air pollution. Please head to our website if you would like to download a short guide!
• next week we will be out and about at events organised by the Entrepreneurs' Award for Social Innovation, the EIS Association and our own advisers' quarterly strategy session
• we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Leticia Souza Samuel Okoronkwo Jr Aarsh Batra Fannie Serrano Sarah Masih, MD, MBA Dr. Dominique Morrison Pablo Lloyd OBE Zara Ransley Jose-Luiz Moura Alistair Brownlee OBE Claudine Adeyemi-Adams FIEP Sanghamitra Chakravarty Dr Fin Williams Jean-Charles PASSEPONT Michael Pan Mike Laflin Dr Moira Nicolson Colette Harris Ben Brabyn Ian Rummels Halvard Ramstad Sandra Roycroft-Davis Andre Dubuisson Raphaël Desfontaines Véronique Rapetti David Johnston Gavin Hall Adam Taylor Ruaraidh Dobson Jelena Skene Tithi Raval. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.

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Meet the team

This edition, we are meeting Sacha Manson-Smith, our Chief Technology Officer. Sacha says “My background is in Science and Technology - I studied Physics at Imperial College, and then a PhD at Strathclyde University with a placement in Nagoya, Japan. My recent roles as CTO of a healthcare technology startup and a micromobility scaleup have been deeply rewarding experiences that shaped how I approach building technology with real-world impact.

"When you're focused on building, it's easy to lose sight of how far you've come. It was only nine months ago that we released the first mobile version of AirTrack. Since then, we've learned a great deal from our users and developed features that help them reduce their exposure to air pollution and live healthier lives. At Air Aware Labs we are also doing some heavyweight machine learning and it's great to build my skillset. I love working with our diverse team, bringing together experiences and perspectives from across the world and helping to build a platform that helps as many people as possible."

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Get in touch

Please follow Air Aware Labs to stay in touch with our progress. If anything in this newsletter has piqued your interest, please send me (Louise Thomas) or William Hicks a message! You can also email us at hello@airawarelabs.com