Air monitor app places start-up among world’s 50 best

Israeli environmental tech start-up BreezoMeter has been named one of the 50 best start-ups in the world by a top panel of judges — and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who presided over the Israeli edition of the worldwide Start-up Open contest, gives the city’s stamp of approval to the choice.

Start-up Open is a project of the Kaufmann Foundation, which seeks to promote entrepreneurship and self-sufficiency among young adults. With $2 billion in assets making it one of the largest private foundations in the US, it has plenty of money to enhance that vision. Each year it spends millions of dollars on the Global Entrepreneurship Congress, which the Foundation bills as the world’s largest entrepreneurial event.

It’s this august company that BreezoMeter has joined, showing off its technology that tells how good or bad air quality is in a specific location — right outside your house, for example. According to Ran Korber, who developed BreezoMeter along with partner Ziv Lautman, the app “takes information from pollution stations and extrapolates it, based on wind direction, speed, and other factors to give an accurate reading of pollution levels even far away from a station.”

Currently in use in several cities in Israel, BreezoMeter looks at your location and determines where the closest stations are in order to make its calculations, sometimes taking data from three or four nearby stations. Barometer’s algorithms check the information and match it up with weather data supplied by the stations, including temperature, wind information, time of day, the position of the sun — all factors that can affect the pollution level. BreezoMeter then delivers a localized pollution reading — which, says Korber, “is 99% accurate.”

“We developed it in order figure out where the safest place would be for my pregnant wife,” on the theory that high pollution levels could cause physical or mental damage in fetuses or infants, said Korber. “Many studies have shown that high levels of pollution can cause damage in infants, and with BreezoMeter, families can check if pollution levels are consistently high in a specific location before they rent or buy a home there.”

BreezoMeter has gotten several angel investments, said Korber, and has won several technology contests in Israel, including one held last November at the Technion. Going forward, Korber expects the basic BreezoMeter app to remain free, with additional capabilities available for a small fee. In addition, he expects to be able to partner with companies like real estate firms, health organizations, and others.

The app is ready to break through to the rest of the world. The exposure BreezoMeter receives from just being in Start-up Open is bound to attract interest in the app from governments and private organizations around the world, said Korber. Already, he said, the company has deals to install its technology in California.

Now, BreezoMeter will compete against 49 other apps from around the world for the top prize — an all expenses paid trip to Milan, where they will receive VIP delegate credentials to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress in March 2015, as well as three months in the Startup Village in Kansas City, the hometown of the Kaufman Foundation, where entrepreneurs have access to one of the fastest Internet speeds in the world.

BreezoMeter was chosen as Israel’s representative in the event by several top members of Israel’s entrepreneurial community, including Chairperson of Global Entrepreneurship Week of Israel Ayla Matalon, Manager of the Hi-Tech Entrepreneurship project at the Jerusalem Development Authority Stav Erez, Head of the Asper Centre for Entrepreneurship Professor Niron Hashai, Co-Founder of Gilat Satellite Networks Joshua Levinberg, Founder and CEO of Continuity Software Gil Hecht, CEO of Pilat Media Avi Engel, Managing Partner of law firm Barnea & Co Michael Barnea, Partner at AfterDox Micki Scheinbach, and CEO of Algomizer Ltd Noam Band.

Winning is nice, Korber and Fisher said, but the real victory “will be when people check air quality at their location like they check the weather. BreezoMeter just launched its wearable compatible app to enable users to monitor air quality around them in real time. And we are in discussions with major companies and other vertical markets to integrate BreezoMeter technology into their offerings,” he said.

“There are 90 countries around the world with air monitoring stations located in big cities,” said Korber. “We hope to be able to serve all of them eventually. This could be an important app for many people — pregnant women, families with little kids, the elderly.”