Air Company Raises $30M for its Technology that Decarbonizes the Planet While Also Creating Alcohol-Based Consumer Goods – AlleyWatch
Summary
Most of the attention has been paid to producing cleaner forms of energy that do not have carbon footprints like solar, electric, and wind to reduce emissions. The company currently operates two facilities with plans to open a third state-of-the-art factory giving them additional capacity; Air estimates that when they are fully scaled and integrated into new verticals theyll have the infrastructure to avoid the equivalent of 10.8% of global CO emissions or 4.6B tonnes.AlleyWatch caught up with Air Company CEO and Cofounder Gregory Constantine to learn more about the business, the companys strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much moreWho were your investors and how much did you raise?We raised $30M in a Series A funding round led by Carbon Direct Capital Management with participation from the likes of Toyota Ventures, JetBlue Technology Ventures, AV Fuel, and Parley for the Oceans. Aside from the primary function of our technology, converting CO into alcohols, our system uniquely utilizes 100% of its CO supply, meaning none of it is re-emitted into the atmosphere, and our entire process runs on renewable (solar and wind) energy. Were dedicated to continuing to innovate our processes through ongoing R&D efforts and offering high-quality, sustainable alternatives to our consumers.Air Company operates on a B2C and B2B business model, by selling consumer products directly to our customers as well as providing technology and sustainable solutions to large enterprise businesses to help them reach out CO mitigation goals.What are your post-COVID office plans?As a progressive company, were adapting to move with the trends set forth by the pandemic. Were extremely fortunate to have a great investor base that believes in our vision and sees the progress our organization is making, which inherently makes the process a smoother one.What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?One challenge we face is that because our operations include a broad range of products, including vodka, some corporates and specific funders have intricacies in their investment thesis that prevent them from investing in companies that produce products such as spirits.