Welcome to our X-Europe startup interview series. We have virtually sat down with a number of our founders from past cohorts to hear all about their solutions, vision for the future, and what made them tick during our X Europe programme. So whether you are a deep tech founder looking for startup support, an eagle-eyed investor, or simply interested in the possibilities that technology can bring to society, then we welcome you to take a read. Please meet Breeze Technologies, a tech leader in the field of air quality sensors, data, and clean air action analytics.
Can you briefly explain what your solution is all about? What’s unique about it?
Breeze Technologies is a tech leader in the field of air quality sensors, data, and clean air action analytics. We help cities, businesses, and other organisations to monitor air quality on a hyperlocal level and create better clean air action plans and a more liveable environment, thanks to the internet of things and artificial intelligence.
Our solution includes accurate, AI- and cloud-enabled lower-cost air quality sensors - which we developed ourselves - as well as our Environmental Intelligence Cloud where the data from our sensors, satellites, and other data sources gets aggregated and where we provide insights and intelligence to our customers.
Besides our focus on both indoor and outdoor air quality, these insights are also what make us unique. We do not only provide our customers with data about potential air quality challenges, but we actually help them to solve these challenges with recommendations from a catalog of more than 3,500 clean air actions!
What led you to start or join your company? What is the key motivation and mission behind the startup?
When I was living and working in Istanbul back in winter 2014, I experienced for the very first time what smog really means. During some parts of my stay there, I could barely see the other side of the street anymore!
Digging deeper into the topic, I found out: Today's decision-makers do not have enough data to both track air quality extensively enough, as well as to judge the effectiveness and efficiency of mitigation strategies. The idea for Breeze Technologies was born: low-cost sensors combined with a smart data platform automatically analysing the gathered data.
Who are the key target audiences? How does the technology make a positive impact?
Following the UN Sustainable Development Goal 17, Partnership for the Goals, we work with cities and governmental organisations, businesses, NGOs, and other civic organisations. Our core customer groups include the environmental or smart city department of municipalities, as well as building operators or the environmental site management of corporates.
However, we also provide air quality data to the public for free through our global citizen portal for air quality (https://map.breeze-technologies.de).
We not only provide transparency about local air quality and connected challenges, but we are also our customers' partners to resolve these challenges as quickly and efficiently as possible.
What’s the biggest milestone your startup has achieved so far, and what has surprised you most on this journey?
Every month brings new milestones that we can be very proud of. We are already serving customers in 9 countries and have 13,000 data points on our Environmental Intelligence Cloud. Just this month, we won the Future Hamburg Award and were featured on Bloomberg Green.
What are your goals over the next 3, 6 and 12 months?
We are currently focussing on scaling our company internationally and winning new partners in the areas of smart cities and the smart industry. Any platform operators and system integrators in these areas are warmly welcome to contact us to evaluate partnerships.
What advice would you give to an entrepreneur strying to pave his/her way in the Smart Cities & Sustainability landscape?
Convincing cities to become your clients is very hard; even more so winning the very first city client. Think carefully about who would profit from your solution and who you could partner with - and focus early on building these strong partnerships!
What’s unique about the X-Europe programme?
X-Europe provides networking opportunities and visibility, which is exactly what we need right now. We are very much looking forward to the rest of the program, and the TNW conference at the end!
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