WeavAir - proactive air insights

Ventilation and air conditioning systems represent one of the largest components of building energy usage and carbon emissions. Air conditioning makes up of more than 51% of building energy use and a lot of this energy consumption is a result of not having accurate real-time measurements. Furthermore, our buildings often have serious contamination issues, which are not just affecting the energy efficiency of the buildings, but also our health. WeavAir built the world’s first device that harnesses environmental, mechanical and human metrics as well as predictive AI algorithms to manage high value air conditioning and purification systems, improve indoor air quality, save energy & streamline operations

Ventilation and air conditioning systems represent one of the largest components of building energy usage and carbon emissions. Over 25% of air ventilation systems in buildings have undiagnosed issues, which often result in costly failures. This failure is often very difficult to predict. An air conditioning system failure is particularly significant in healthcare institutions, such as hospitals, where building air distribution systems are often operated in overdrive and occupants are already immune-compromised. This results in over $45 billion in annual direct hospital costs in the US alone. This issue has a large social impact. Furthermore, our buildings often have serious contamination issues, which are not just affecting the energy efficiency of the buildings, but also our health. Many of the air filtration solutions on the market are also not effective resulting in false sense of security and many serious building contamination problems and spread of infection.

We spoke to hundreds of stakeholders in Canada, US, Korea and Taiwan including building developers, building managers and maintenance personnel and they expressed high level of interest in working with us. Currently large amount of energy is wasted because the operation of air conditioning equipment is not optimized. In addition, maintenance organizations are wasting a large amount of time (1,000+ hours/year monitoring and reports) and money ($400K+ costs per year), not to mention the fuel and emissions resulting from commutes to customer sites. We are going to market by selling devices to building service providers. Because they own and operate the air conditioning equipment, they often incur significant costs in fixing it. They told us that WeavAir solution would help them save time, money and can ultimately be used as sales tool for better and more energy efficient equipment. There is also a large opportunity to offer the solution to air conditioning and filter manufacturers, insurance providers, as well as building consulting and green building certification companies. The global market opportunity for WeavAir is over $45B and the market is growing at 13.4% CAGR.

We spoke to hundreds of stakeholders in Canada, US, Korea and Taiwan including building developers, building managers and maintenance personnel and they expressed high level of interest in working with us. Currently large amount of energy is wasted because the operation of air conditioning equipment is not optimized. In addition, maintenance organizations are wasting a large amount of time (1,000+ hours/year monitoring and reports) and money ($400K+ costs per year), not to mention the fuel and emissions resulting from commutes to customer sites. We are going to market by selling devices to building service providers. Because they own and operate the air conditioning equipment, they often incur significant costs in fixing it. They told us that WeavAir solution would help them save time, money and can ultimately be used as sales tool for better and more energy efficient equipment. There is also a large opportunity to offer the solution to air conditioning and filter manufacturers, insurance providers, as well as building consulting and green building certification companies. The global market opportunity for WeavAir is over $45B and the market is growing at 13.4% CAGR.

WeavAir solution is highly differentiated from exiting solutions. Our sensors are easy to use and can be easily and quickly integrated in most types of buildings (and even vehicles). WeavAir devices make use of bigger number of metrics tracked to improve accuracy of predictive models to prevent failure, save more energy and eliminate contamination sources. Our algorithms provide a way to not just detect issues early but also provide a way to fix them. Unlike competition, WeavAir solution is also positioned to serve enterprise market and provide value-added services through recurring revenue model.

Spatio-temporal analysis, internet of things, and predictive AI models

Our vision at WeavAir is to improve public health while reducing energy consumption, costs and carbon emissions associated with air conditioning systems through networked sensor add-ons for the air conditioning systems. We developed the world’s first device for air conditioning systems that tracks the biggest number of metrics wirelessly in real time and uses them proactively to improve the building operations and air quality. We track mechanical, environmental and human occupancy factors and use them combined with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to automate and improve operation. We ensure data accuracy through precise calibration and signal processing to improve sensor accuracy by 40%. The overall value proposition includes: 1) Improved air conditioning performance efficiency and reduced system failure, 2) improved indoor air quality, 3) cost saving through improved energy efficiency. Through a network of trusted air purification solution providers, we also offer customized air filtration solutions that help improve energy efficiency of air conditioning systems and building occupant wellbeing and health.

Currently - 100,000 people 

In 1 year - 1 million people

In 5 year - 3 million people

An air conditioning system failure is particularly significant in healthcare institutions, such as hospitals, where building air distribution systems are often operated in overdrive and occupants are already immune-compromised. This results in over $45 billion in annual direct hospital costs in the US alone. This issue has a large social impact. Our long-term aspiration is to reduce impact of pollution on health and prevent disease development. We would like to build a movement and increase public literacy about air pollution and offer air pollution analytics to governments to help inform better urban planning and building design decisions. Healthcare institutions such as hospitals are spending large amounts of money on energy and technologies that manage contamination issues and equipment failures. Hospitals can protect their bottom line by being more energy efficient, which would also propagate to reduced government spending.                             

Our long-term goal is to position the device as a standard tool for monitoring compliance with green building standards and in the future – a required technology to be installed in buildings according to building code. We are in conversations with regulatory authorities to certify our solution as a standard method to validate compliance with building code and green building standards. 

IoT field is quickly evolving and new connected devices are constantly being introduced both within and outside air conditioning industry. Therefore, speed to market and ability to constantly differentiate our product will be important. 

Our R&D pipeline is composed of several key services (solutions for fixing air quality issues) and products (modules for industrial and vehicle cabin), which will keep as competitive and hep us enter new markers. Furthermore, WeavAir solution will continue being competitive as it goes beyond sensors and provides predictive algorithms and that can improve the accuracy and provide actionable insights of other sensor platforms as well. We put emphasis of customer experience and eliminating problems customers face with existing products on the market.

3 full time, 2 part time and 5 contractors

Natalia Mykhaylova (Founder & CEO) has a PhD in Engineering at the University of Toronto and 9 years’ experience in developing novel devices and wireless networks. She has a strong expertise in sensor technologies and predictive analytics and has a contact network of experts, suppliers and contract manufacturers. Natalia is handing product development and overall strategy or the company. 

Julie Huber is a Bachelor of Commerce grad from University of Toronto. She has experience in product operations analysis and financial model development. Julie is handling operations and financial planning. 

Hyeonsuk Lim, Korea Lead, has worked as PR, media, and marketing specialist for 14 years at NGOs, governmental organizations, and a big financial enterprise. She studied computer science, and international management for her bachelor's degrees in Korea, and international Affairs for master's degree at the Fletcher School in USA. She also earned a certificate of managing productivity from Cornell University in USA.

WeavAir has also secured device manufacturing partnership with Might and received a government grant to subsidize most of the costs of manufacturing trial run. We also partnered with a sensor manufacturer in Korea to co-develop and manufacture a novel bioaerosol (infection aerosol in air) sensor.  We have also secured partnership with IOEX, which will be helping WeavAir set up blockchain infrastructure for sending and storing data securely, while reducing data storage costs.

The revenue model is recurring and involves subscription plans for sensors and analytics and scales with the size of building and building category (i.e. healthcare, manufacturing, commercial or residential). Building developers, owners and managers are key customers for sensor devices and analytics platform. WeavAir solution helps them reduce both capital costs and operation costs through energy savings, reduced equipment failure and automation, while reducing their liability. Equipment, IT, insurance and maintenance service providers are also key customers for our data analytics solution. They will pay for device and analytics subscription, which will reduce their operation costs, save them time and increase their revenue by offering them an opportunity to improve their customer service and sell better quality products with higher margin. For building occupants, WeavAir solution offers several benefits as well. These include improved health and productivity, through improved indoor air quality as well as reduced building operation and maintenance costs, though energy savings and reduced equipment failure.

We are financing the venture through product revenue as well as grants and awards. We are planning to raise seed capital by the end of the year.

We are working to build key distribution channel partnerships to make our solution available to more people. Therefore we are very interested in personalized support with intentional introductions to members of Solve’s cross-sector community, which will help us build the partnerships needed to accelerate our work, validate impact and business model, and scale our solution. 

We created a global channel partners program, where organizations selling the products and services to the same types of customers can partner with us to save costs, increase value of their offering and get additional revenue. Ideal channel partners have established relationships with our target customers and can help us get customers faster by promoting our solution. By partnering with them we are also able to offer a more complete solution (i.e. automation, customized filtration solutions, preventative maintenance etc). 

There is also a large opportunity to offer the solution to air conditioning and filter manufacturers, insurance providers, as well as building consulting and green building certification companies. 

We track mechanical, environmental and human occupancy factors and use them combined with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to automate and improve operation. We ensure data accuracy through precise calibration and signal processing to improve sensor accuracy, identifying contamination sources and preventing failure and energy waste.

We will use the funds to cover manufacturing costs and grow the team. 

WeavAir is focused on preventing or managing infectious disease in cities. We leverage technology to improve  communication. We take a holistic approach to solving the problem. Community engagement will be central to our solution. Our long-term aspiration is to reduce impact of pollution on health and prevent disease development. We would like to build a movement and increase public literacy about air pollution and offer air pollution analytics to governments to help inform better urban planning and building design decisions.

We track mechanical, environmental and human occupancy factors and use them combined with artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to automate and improve operation. All data is sourced and maintained responsibly. We ensure data accuracy through precise calibration and signal processing to improve sensor accuracy, identifying contamination sources and preventing failure and energy waste.

We will use the funds to cover manufacturing costs and grow the team. 

WeavAir is focused on preventing or managing infectious disease in cities. We leverage technology to improve  communication. We take a holistic approach to solving the problem. Community engagement will be central to our solution. Our long-term aspiration is to reduce impact of pollution on health and prevent disease development. We would like to build a movement and increase public literacy about air pollution and offer air pollution analytics to governments to help inform better urban planning and building design decisions.