Indoor air quality gadget maker raises €1.2m

Biophilic design specialist Vitesy has raised €1.2m in investment, valuing the company at €15m on the back of rising interest in indoor air quality.

Vitesy products are designed San Francisco and manufactured in Italy. The company creates smart devices for air purification and monitoring using internet of things connections, combined with plants, nanomaterials and other technology to monitor and reduce air pollution.

The capital increase was led by Doorway, an online equity investing platform, which raised through its community of investors funding equal to €500,000, involving external business angels for a subscription of an additional €500,000. The remaining €200,000 of capital was received in the form of a bridging loan. In 2017, the company was awarded a grant of around €2 from the European Union.

“We are showing that hardware startups are possible in Italy,” said co-founder and CEO of Vitesy, Paolo Ganis. “We are proud of the results gained so far and we are excited to face 2021 with new products but also new services; this is fundamental for us and we are very grateful to Doorway and all the investors who have supported us in this bridge round.”

Antonella Grassigli, CEO and co-founder of Doorway: “We are pleased to have supported Vitesy, a company that is showing consistency and focus in pursuing its goals by operating in a sector that has great potential for growth and development. This investment confirms our support to successful entrepreneurial initiatives where sustainability is at the center of our projects.”

The investment will accelerate commercial expansion and support the research and development for the new product, Eteria, a purification and monitoring system for diffused air. New hires are also planned, which will bring the team to 25 people.

Vitesy was formed by scientists, engineers, and designers who study products that can eliminate and monitor indoor air pollution, certified to be up to five times higher than that outside by the World Health Organisation. The company bases its business model on the development of three important technologies:

• Phytoremediation: intensive exploitation of the filtering capacity of the pollutants of some plants
• Photocatalysis: implementation of a brand-new nanomaterial effective in killing viruses and bacteria.
• Proprietary software: algorithms that process the air quality data from sensors to offer services to companies and institutions.

Vitesy’s latest product, NATEDE, is a natural air purifier for indoor environments which received €1m in pre-orders in 40 days.

The market for air purification systems is in constant development estimated at $33bn globally by 2023, compared to $5bn in 2013. Another rapidly growing trend, which the company is focusing on, is the indoor plants market – of great interest for the generation of millennials, increasingly confirming the orientation towards the issues of air quality, green, and big data, with the aim of being in line with the evolution of the world market.