The heightened concerns around maintaining the air in indoor spaces after the pandemic has boosted the air purifier product category, and Urban Air Labs is entering into the space with an innovative technology that uses living, breathing plants for filtration of the contaminants. The resulting air purifier can also be described as an IoT plant, which has the added benefit of reducing the build up of carbon dioxide. The purifier works at one fifth the energy requirement of other comparable purifiers on the market.
The first thing we wanted to ask Urban Air labs is if their purifiers had been tested for effectiveness, “Ubreathe has been tested at NABLs certified lab to certify the efficacy of PM2.5 contaminations in controlled environments. Apart from the third party certification, the product has been extensively tested in our Gurgaon based in-house testing lab facility. The overall objective of the product is to provide a solution for a conventional household in metro cities in India – with that in mind, product’s effectiveness is tested not only for the dust pollution but also on the gaseous and biological pollution in the air.”
We then wanted to know what the energy was actually consumed for, “Ubreathe uses its patent pending ‘Breathing roots’ technology to purify the air from the surrounding. The energy consumption is required to activate the machinery inside the smart pot that enhances the purification capacity of the plant.” Then we moved on to perhaps the most interesting question, the IoT capabilities of the unit, and how the plant was actually made smart, “with IoT, Ubreathe is enabled with smart control options and most importantly it provides essential information about the air quality in the house, health status of the plant (in future) and gives critical alerts in case of air pollution spike.
Ubreathe is a smart pot as it comes with a mobile app that completes the information feedback mechanism for the user.” Urban Air labs has big plans for the future, with products aimed at both residential and commercial areas, “we are building a niche market of ‘Air wellness’ space for everyone. On the same line, we are launching our next generation product in August 2021. The information and first look of the product would be out in the month of July. The product would be made available in pan India.”
Finally, we asked about the experience of working with Nexus, “Nexus has been an important contributor to our journey. With the right set of experts and organising team, Nexus has been able to find the perfect engagement for the young entrepreneurs. We learned so much from those weeks – all the learnings are coming to our use when we find ourselves in the growth phase.” Nexus is a startup accelerator that is a collaboration between the US Embassy, New Delhi and the Alliance For Commercialization and Innovation Research. With collaborations with local organisations, access to networks of investors, training from commercialisation experts, and an extensive mentor network, the initiative has grown to become one of the top incubation programs in the country. The priority is to pick an interesting concept and help it reach the market as fast as possible. These are cutting edge, innovative solutions to everyday problems.