With fires, pandemics, and unsustainable emissions all around us these days, it’s no surprise that the air purifier market is hot, hot, hot. Sales of the category have grown 158 percent over the past two years, according to NPD. Among the more intriguing air purifiers on the market today are those that are portable enough to take with you on a trip and those that analyze air and cloud data in real-time and act accordingly.
Air purification company Aura Air covers both bases. Its Aura Air Mini is a beer can-sized portable air purifier that can clean up to 100 feet around a person, viruses and all, while its Aura Web Platform, which was unveiled at CES in January, is designed to help businesses assess and manage the air quality of their offices at scale. The platform uses a coterie of sensors, cloud-based real-time pollution data, AI, and synchronization with HVAC systems to analyze and automatically optimize air purification and temperature levels in offices, which helps save energy. It also provides insights on the air quality in an organization’s offices.
Aura Web Platform is capable of managing thousands of connected air purifiers across the globe, for organizations that have that need. Think of it as fleet management for air quality devices. Already the company’s solutions are being used by hospitals, schools, restaurants, government offices, nursing homes, residential buildings, and brick-and-mortar retail stores in more than 50 countries. Some of the companies that use Aura’s technology include Google, J.P. Morgan, Subway, Brookfield, BHP, CARR Properties, Molex, and the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts.Â
A word about Aura’s air purifiers – the Aura Air and the Aura Air Mini – themselves. Both, including the Aura Mini, use four stages of purification. The pre-filter captures large particles to prevent them from going into Aura’s patented three-layer ray filter, which itself has a HEPA layer to catch additional particles, a carbon layer to absorb gasses, and a special filter that uses zinc. That last one is designed to prevent pathogens from growing on the filter itself and eliminates them on contact. Next, UV-C light shines on both the air passing through and the filter to kill any remaining germs. Lastly, a sterilizer generates positive and negative oxygen ions while producing minimal ozone, per Aura Air. Most good air purifiers on the market have HEPA and carbon filters, but it’s these additional layers that are among the unique capabilities of Aura’s hardware. Regardless, the Aura Web Platform is designed to work with third-party air purifiers as well.
In episode 120 of the Dealerscope podcast, I spoke with Roei Friedberg, CEO of Aura Americas, about the air purifier market, Aura Air’s holistic approach to indoor and outdoor air quality, the Aura Air Mini, and the Aura Web Platform.
Click on the podcast below to listen now, or download it here.
