Welcome to the twenty-first edition of our newsletter, as Air Aware Labs welcomes its first equity investor and is poised for growth. This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.

We’re excited to offer a glimpse into our latest analysis, which spans over 40,000 activities measuring personal air pollution exposure across 26 different sports. From running to rowing, pickleball to tennis, we’re investigating how athletes in different activities are exposed to harmful pollutants. Perhaps unsurprisingly, skiing ranks as the sport with the lowest exposure - thanks to fresh mountain air, electric ski lifts and early adoptions of electric piste bashers (though woodburning in dwellings lower down valleys can cause some spikes). In contrast, football faces the highest levels of exposure, especially for players in urban environments during evening hours, where pollution levels can spike after the workday. We’re uncovering trends and opportunities to improve air quality for athletes everywhere. Stay tuned for our full article and join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.

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Hot off the press

• we are excited to announce our first investors in Air Aware Labs. Regent Capital Ventures has been a hugely supportive investor and we look forward to working with them throughout our journey. Will attended Heilbronn Shlush'd yesterday in Germany to meet investors and other founders in the European ecosystem
• we will shortly be listed as part of the HealthKey employee wellbeing platform, which is our second such offering since launching our AirTrack product
• we have started working with two mentors from Imperial Ventures Mentoring Service, which is a long-term programme connecting start ups to experienced entrepreneurs. We have also been accepted onto the Centre for Business and Industry Transformation (CBIT) accelerator programme, which we believe will help speed up our commercialisation.

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Go with us towards clean air

• we continue to build our brand and welcome any reposting of our content and following of our pages on social media platforms. In particular, we have been featured in a second podcast episode - from Valuu Makers - and as well as the first Female Founders Friday spotlight from FounderCatalyst
• our pre-seed round continues following our initial investment, so please get in touch if you are, or know of, potential investors. We also welcome any support to help us get our market sizing right - given we are accessing so many potential markets, this has been a tough one to get right so far
• we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Ian Collard Richard Saldanha Natalie Otwoma Kitty Harris Anthony Clinch Ian Edmondson Peter Udale Vysh Manivannan Annie Tripp Salvatore D'Urso ACMA, CGMA Robert Timms Candice Hampson Katherine Marcham Lou Arzur James Riley Dr Claire Ashley Eric Jeker Lauren Rothwell Abeed Janmohamed Abigail Whitehouse Helen Buchan Ryan Purvis Ben Brabyn Stefanie Mulder Jasmin Thomas Iain Hunter Amanda You Marjo Palanee Amy McDonnell Connor Morrison Sam Simpson Theresia M.R. Heinrich Fenella Chambers Denisa Ismalaj Carla Marquez Amanda Vine Subramanian (Subi) Kuppuswami Karl Rego Tom Maverley Gail Armstrong Kitty Harris. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.

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Meet the team

This week, we welcome Lila Goldberg, our newest intern. Lila will be joining us next week to focus on marketing, picking up from where our fantastic intern Orlando Bell left off. Lila says: I am a third-year student at Elon University, pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Strategic Communications with minors in Spanish and Business Administration. This past summer, I interned at a nonprofit organization, where I managed social media platforms, led marketing campaigns, and curated blog content. On campus, I have also worked as a data analytics assistant for The Edge Magazine, creating trend reports to guide the writers in developing content. In addition, my role as a Brand Ambassador for Prime Student and Bumble allowed me to elevate brand awareness, engage target audiences, and drive customer acquisition through campus events and content creation.

Starting this fall, I am looking forward to joining the Air Aware Labs team as a marketing assistant! My experience managing social media accounts, developing comprehensive strategies, and making data-backed suggestions to improve engagement will help me excel in this position. I’m particularly excited to deepen my expertise in audience targeting and brand representation while contributing to the growth and success of Air Aware Labs. Looking forward to the journey ahead and being part of such an innovative team!

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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

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More newsletters

Although the Venture Builder has finished, we will never forget our fellow ZINC teams.  Please read and subscribe to newsletters of others in cohort 7:

• Pavandeep Rai here
• Marjo Palanee here
• Donna Egan here
• Josh Piddock here
• Guy Naor here
• Veronika Bridgman here
• Lisa Rickers here
• Natalia Baltazar here

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