Tagline
The pollution solution that pays
Pitch us on your solution
Pluvo aims to tackle urban air pollution and thus mitigate the mounting health effects of our global emissions.
The Pluvo is a patent-pending street furniture product (street furniture = industry lingo for structures like lamp-posts, bus stops, phone booths etc.) that uses cutting-edge technology within the unit to monitor and filter harmful air pollutants. Externally the Pluvo is designed as a new high-value form of street-side advertising. By leveraging our recurring ad/sponsorship revenue we financially incentivise a widespread roll out of our turnkey product in order to materially improve air quality in pollution hotspots and public health in cities.
Scaling the Pluvo in cities worldwide would clean up the air millions breathe daily and thus reduce their risk of early death and the plethora of health problems caused by air pollution.
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What is the problem you are solving?
Pluvo aims to tackle the transmission of urban air pollution from local emitters like cars on the street to unsuspecting pedestrians and city-goers. Air pollution (specifically nitrogen oxides and particulate matter) currently causes an estimated 8.8 million (1 in 6) deaths worldwide, killing 800,000 people a year in Europe (European Heart Journal). The World Bank estimated that in 2013 air pollution cost the world about $225 billion in lost labor income, and that amount has only increased as pollution levels have risen globally. Much of the air pollution in cities is due to transportation, wether it's the cars on the streets we walk along or the transit options we wait for at stations and bus-stops with no effective barrier between the emissions and us. An urgent solution is required at the city street level to effectively improve the quality of the air that dense city populations breathe on a daily basis. Existing air pollution control products are prohibitively expensive, customized, large, and not designed for the street-side and urban-specific context.
Who are you serving?
We're looking to serve the populations of heavily polluted cities worldwide, beginning with our home, London, and then spreading Pluvo to where it is needed most. We are specifically looking to help those who frequently walk through and/or wait in highly polluted zones of a city on a daily basis. The Pluvo helps to meet their air quality needs by eliminating (or level-loading) pollution peaks in these hot-spots while also monitoring urban air quality.
We’ve had multiple councils, landowners & transport hub providers approach us as they have the same goal. Air Pollution is already on the top of the agenda for many city councils and private landowners. We are discussing the possibility of trial sites with a couple high-profile councils and private landowners and have been approached by over 10 London councils as well as international parties. We have already been entered in a major London council's Mayor of London's Low Emission Neighbourhood proposal and have a tentative launch site with them. We have also been in advanced talks with a railway company for inclusion of Pluvo in a major UK station redesign.
What is your solution?
We develop, install and maintain the Pluvo, a turnkey air scrubbing street product. Each Pluvo unit can remove up to 75% of particle matter pollutants (e.g. PM1, PM2.5, PM10) as well as 95% of harmful NOx gases. This pollutant reduction has been shown (through advanced airflow computer simulations) to reduce street-side air pollution by up to 60% turning the area around each Pluvo from a high-risk to low-risk air pollution zone (as defined by Public Health England). All of this is done with minimal energy use, provided through renewable sources. The Pluvo achieves this by reappropriating industrial air scrubbing technologies (e.g. wet scrubbing) using water mist droplets and chemisorption to trap the particulates and the NOx gases before filtering them out.
Each Pluvo doubles street-side "advertising real-estate" where corporate sponsors can visualize their partnership with Pluvo and their contribution to cleaning your cities air!
Which dimensions of the challenge does your solution most closely address?
Where is your solution team headquartered?
London, UKOur solution's stage of development:
PrototypeHow many people are you currently serving with your solution? How many will you be serving in one year? How about in five years?
Currently: 0 (no installed Pluvo's yet)
1 Year: 250,000 (conservative based on 10 installed Pluvos)
5 Years: 2,500,000 (conservative based on 100 installed Pluvos)
What are your goals within the next year and within the next five years?
Our broad commercialization strategy is to initially create (with our manufacturing partners) the first fully functioning Pluvo to test and demonstrate to our clients. By the end of next year we plan to have our first ten Pluvos installed at prominent initial sites (such as Brixton road), with brand sponsorship. After 2020 we will leverage the advertising revenue from our installed units to scale and install further units across prime pollution reduction sites in London and other major cities worldwide. Within the next 5 years we look to have hundreds of Pluvos installed worldwide and new product offerings that further integrate Pluvo’s technology into the smart cities of tomorrow!
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For-profitHow many people work on your solution team?
2 full-time staff and one part-time staff.
For how many years have you been working on your solution?
1
Why are you and your team best-placed to deliver this solution?
We have a strong core team with a track record of executing & implementing products in relevant fields including large scale manufacturing and street furniture rollout, and sales. Matteo, the CEO, is a Design Engineer (MSc/MA) that was previously a Program Manager for a large manufacturing firm and expert in the circular economy. Rikesh, the COO, is the Former Senior Commercial, Delivery, Planning, and Product Manager for the InLinkUK at BT. Co-ordinating the development and introduction of InLinkUK to the UK streetscape working with Local Authorities across major cities including London.
With what organizations are you currently partnering, if any? How are you working with them?
We’ve had multiple councils, landowners & transport hub providers approach us. This includes potential trial partners with Landsec & Grosvenor Estates. We’ve met Northern Rail to potentially install Pluvos in a major station redesign. Lambeth Council has included us in their Low Emissions Neighbourhood fund to purchase multiple Pluvos and we’ve already had our first pre-planning meeting. On the advertising side we’ve signed a deal with Kinetic Worldwide the world's largest Out-Of-Home advertising specialist. We are also working closely with various researchers and departments at Imperial College to collaborate on optimizing, testing, and evaluating our solution.
What is your business model?
Pluvo has two paying customers: landowners and advertisers. For the landowners we offer the Pluvo as street furniture which helps them tackle air pollution. For advertisers we offer a novel advertising medium, in prominent/busy locations, which will associate their brand with reducing local air pollution. We provide and install Pluvos for landowners at a discounted price and in return get their permission to install Pluvos on their land. We own, maintain and service the Pluvos for their lifetime. We then sell the Pluvo sponsorship/advertising space to brands in return for recurring ad revenue.
Why are you applying to Solve?
Funding for a hardware startup to help cover build costs as well as well-developed network in IOT and impactful urban solutions.
What types of connections and partnerships would be most catalytic for your solution?
If you would like to apply for the Innovating Together for Healthy Cities Prize, describe how you and your team will utilize the prize to advance your solution.
Since the Pluvo scrubs fine particulate matter it also scrubs air-borne bacteria and certain viruses.
Solution Team
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RC
Rikesh Chotai Pluvo -
MM
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Our Solution
Pluvo