Krakow-based cleantech business Airly, Inc. has raised a €2.7 million funding round to scale its AI-powered air quality platform globally. Airly’s customers comprise over 600 local governments and cities including Hong Kong, Jakarta, Oslo, Granada, corporates such as Philips, Virgin, Innogy, PwC, Veolia and Skanska. Airly will now open offices in the UK and US as it doubles staff count.
The funding round was led by firstminute capital, an early-stage venture fund based in London, which is led by Brent Hoberman CBE and backed by over 70 unicorn tech founders. Leading angel investors also participated, including: Uber founder Garrett Camp via Expa, Bolt CEO Markus Villig, founding Editor-in-Chief of WIRED David Rowan, Pipedrive founder Ragnar Sass and Ferry Heilemann, co-founder of Leaders for Climate Action. Previous investors, including Sir Richard Branson’s Family Office and Henkel board member Konstantin von Unger, also participated in the round. Existing investors include Giant Ventures and Sir Ronald Cohen’s family office.
Founded in 2016 by Wiktor Warchałowski, Airly provides actionable insights about air quality with its AI-driven algorithms that predict air pollution for the next 24 hours with a verifiability of up to 95%. Airly gives customers across the globe an environmental intelligence platform by installing networks of sensors that track all the key pollution markers – particulate matter (PM1, PM2.5, PM10) and gases (NO2, O3, SO2 and CO). Airly’s R&D department is also partnering with mobility companies to roll out sensor-equipped cars & scooters to track air quality with even higher resolution.
In addition to improving its environmental intelligence platform and algorithms, Airly will use the money to expand its team with the addition of sales, marketing and engineering talents in several countries. The company will approximately double its current 35-person staff by the end of 2021.