Welcome to the thirty-sixth edition of our newsletter, as we join a visit to India and gear up for a lot of outreach and product development over the next six weeks! This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.

Our recent Imperial College London Venture Trek to Mumbai and Bengaluru made one thing abundantly clear: AirTrack is needed now more than ever. At nearly every event and meeting, people told us how essential a tool like AirTrack would be in cities facing hazardous air quality daily. They shared personal stories that reinforced just how urgent the problem has become. According to the 2024 World Air Quality Report by IQAir, 13 of the world’s 20 most polluted cities (measured by levels of fine particulate matter - PM2.5) are in India. The national average—50.6 µg/m³—is 10 times higher than the WHO’s annual guideline. Byrnihat in Meghalaya now tops the global list, while Delhi remains the most polluted capital. Even with a 7% drop in PM2.5 levels since 2023, the average remains worryingly high, driven by industrial emissions, vehicle exhaust and burning of biomass and rice crops. As well as acute health responses, this drives higher risk of chronic conditions. We invite everyone in India and beyond, to please join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.

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Hot off the press

• before Will headed to India, we undertook our first full Board meeting following our fundraise. This was all about getting our governance right as we scale and gave us a moment to focus on strategy, metrics, finance and CSR priorities
• we presented at the Mobilityways Zero Carbon Commuting conference, which included an audience poll showing 92% thought employers were not doing enough on air pollution
• we have completed another round of user testing, confirming our focus on delivering low pollution route features. We were delighted to see one of our users blog about us afterwards too! And look out for user stories coming out soon. Many users ask us about pollen and hay fever - we have written about the links to air pollution here too.

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Go with us towards clean air

• we are reaching out to run clubs to build our AirTrack user base - if you are involved with one, we'd love to chat!
• we are through to the finals of the Entrepreneurs Award in Social Innovation - come along on 27 May in London to show your support! If you are based near Oxford, find us at Oxfordshire Greentech conference on 10 June. Or meet us at London Tech Week stand 465! And as we gear up for Clean Air Day, we'd love to see people at this special event in South London with THE ELLA ROBERTA FAMILY FOUNDATION .
• we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Charlie Martin Michael Donnelly Stephen Rockman Sophie Ansell Sophie Coleman Catherine Barber Reuben Gray Matt Brinkley Mark Hand Jack Goddard Colette Harris Melissa Menke Leanne Georgiades 🌟 Judy Hadden Marlene Mans PM.Dip ACSP Grant Kempster Sam Simpson Lucy Parkin Malcolm Buckley Yasin Gulam Rhys Lewis Hannah King (Waters) Berthe Latreille Alexandre (Alexander) MARTIN ✨🤖 Melissa Holloway Marjo Palanee Nikki Kelly Ben Mumby-Croft David Bent Dr Matthew Sawyer MB, MSc, BSc, GradIEMA. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.

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Meet the team

This week we are meeting, Kenneth Ruelan, our UI/UX designer. Ken says: "I’m passionate about building experiences that feel natural and genuinely helpful for people. Since working with Air Aware Labs, I’ve had the chance to dive into solving design problems that challenge me creatively and push me to think in new ways. Outside of work, I’m usually out exploring with my camera or planning my next travel adventure. Both give me fresh inspiration that I bring back into my design work.

"Working with Air Aware Labs has been a really positive experience. I’ve been able to collaborate closely with people across different disciplines to shape designs that put users first. There have been plenty of opportunities to learn, take valuable feedback, and refine the small details that make a big difference. It’s been great to work with a group so focused on innovation and collaboration, and I’m excited to keep contributing to this project and growing alongside the company."

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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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