Welcome to the forty-third edition of our newsletter, as we prepare to roll out our clean route optimiser and progress in a global pitch contest. This newsletter is aimed at investors, collaborators, future hires and early adopters of our products.

Wildfires have dominated headlines this summer, from record-breaking burns across Europe (~1m Ha) to Canada’s second-worst season in history (>7.5m Ha), and new 'firewave' risk to UK cities.  Beyond the flames, the smoke is is often more complex than traditional sources of air pollution, and depends on what has been burned. Meanwhile, this air pollution travels vast distances and carries a heavier health burden than previously understood. Research suggests that wildfire smoke has been underestimated in its impact by 93%, with hundreds of thousands of excess deaths worldwide linked to PM2.5, volatile organic compounds and Ozone exposure. Check out our latest article Wildfires and the Air We Breathe where we dive deep into the science, scale, and health impacts. Please join us on our mission - Personalising Air Quality, for everyone.

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Hot off the press

• we are building up to international Clean Air For Blue Skies day on 7 September. We are in the final stages of launching our clean air route optimiser, which is a major technical innovation and responds to consistent user requests. You can join the waiting list here. We are also preparing for outreach to support Clean Air Day, with two international webinars being planned.  Look out for more details soon!
• we gained a runner up position in the TiE Global women's pitch competition, meaning we will be making the most of the global masterclasses over the next few months as well as the international network
• despite quiet season in August, we are still getting coverage for our work! We were featured in Founder in Five by UKTN and have been listed as a top London start up to watch by RealRate. And we have joined the Crowdhelix platform to support collaborations with other organisations across Europe.

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Go with us towards clean air

• we are always keen to understand what our users want and share our progress as we build. Please let us know if you'd like to be involved in future user testing, collection of testimonials and user stories!
• as we work further on our commercial strategy through the Innovate Zero programme at Sustainable Ventures, we would love to speak to product managers, clinicians, benefits directors and others to refine our customer profiles - please contact us if you can help
• we continue to be amazed by all the support we get from far and wide. Big shout outs to Ben Whitman Christopher Clay Deepa Vasavakkala (Tamraparani) Helen Buchan Laura Elms Ranvir Singh MBA, LLM, MA(Oxon) Olivia Christie Emma Fox Véronique Rapetti Kitty Harris Ann Jordan Dean MBE DL Mike Laflin Moses Mihan Susie Dullard Phil Borge-Slavnich Zackarie Fortin-Brazeau Tamara Polajnar, PhD Charlie Bronks Ashlie Tapias Silva Maxwell Munford Sam Kinsey-Briggs MBE MA David Bent Carolyn Pearson (nee Carr) MBA Alex Cornean, PhD Alan Debonneville Stuart Duncan Dr Moira Nicolson Noel Nelson Georgi Iliev Sue Barnard Jake Davis. We hope you'll all continue with us towards clean air.

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Meet the team

This week we are reintroducing our co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Louise Thomas. Louise says: "Two years ago I was preparing to leave the civil service after two decades and embark on an entrepreneurial journey, with very little idea what it would involve. I just knew I wanted to do something to make a difference in air quality and that I had the skills to build something exciting. I had enrolled in the Zinc Venture Builder but otherwise didn't have much of a plan

"Within a few months I had founded Air Aware Labs with William Hicks. This has taken me from overseeing product launches to working with the World Economic Forum, and from raising investment as a female founder to discussing corporate partnerships with some of the biggest global companies. I see it as a huge privilege to be able to dedicate time to energy to building something from scratch in such an important sector - not something everyone has the opportunity to do. So every time the going gets tough (as it does in every start up), I remind myself how exceptional this opportunity is."

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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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