A Breeze of Fre$h Air

TO: Professor Clark Hansen, CEO, AMDP

FROM: Etai Evenhaim, Research & Development Analyst

DATE: July 22, 2015

SUBJECT: BreezoMeter: New Tech Investment Opportunity

I strongly recommend that Anima Mundi Development Partners consider BreezoMeter as a future investment opportunity. BreezoMeter is an Israeli startup that compiles air quality metrics from public and private organizations and lets users view air quality and main pollutants in any area. BreezoMeter is a perfect fit for Anima Mundi Development Partners because of how it has embraced the Triple Bottom Line, and is currently working with local governments in the United States and internationally to make air quality information more publicly accessible.

Company Overview

BreezoMeter’s talented environmental engineers crafted the company from a single basic need:

“Our need to know the quality of air we breathe in real time. We breathe 3000 gallons of air a day, isn’t that important?”

In 2012 Ran Korber, Ziv Lautman, and Emil Fisher were concluding or continuing their engineering studies at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology. Like most recent graduates of the Israel Defense Forces and the Technion, the founders were in their late 20s and looking to settle down with their families with the knowledge that air pollution was the leading environmental cause for premature death (BreezoMeter). BreezoMeter utilizes public data that was rarely looked at to bring air quality information to “people and businesses.” Since its inception, BreezoMeter has been featured on TechCrunch, UN, White House.

Meeting Investment Criteria

BreezoMeter embraces the triple bottom line by catering to:

1. Profits: The standard measure of after-tax revenues - (cost of goods sold and operating/other costs).
2. People: The direct or indirect impact on (positively or negatively) the community and consumers that results from company operations.
3. Planet: The direct or indirect impact on the the local and global environment as a result of the creation, disposal, or sourcing of products.

BreezoMeter is a great investment opportunity because it has found a sustainable business model that focuses primarily on bettering the people and planet. How so? BreezoMeter provides free access to air quality information by mining big data, which will allow any person to live healthier by scheduling their lives around air quality levels. By granting this access to people, BreezoMeter is creating more environmentally-conscious consumers which can then decide where to live based on air quality. People with asthma can live in cleaner locations, and this access to information will cause people to move to cleaner areas out of necessity. Thus, dirtier areas will have to be priced at a discount and local politicians will have to make changes in that area if they want their cities to prosper. If the local governments don’t they will face bankruptcy (in the long run) and decreased property tax revenue.

BreezoMeter is not only a utility, but also a form of education which will hopefully propel it to make an immediate impact on policy and also meet profit expectations.

Corporate Social Responsibility

As a social enterprise, BreezoMeter is committed to providing a return on equity that is not merely financial. BreezoMeter and other social enterprises (both for-profit and non-profit) share a common desire:

“[To] contribute to society not only by creating jobs and driving economic growth, but by driving innovation that helps solve global challenges and make the world a better place” - Jonathan Ortmans, President, Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW)

A great example of this in BreezoMeter’s business model is the ability for government organizations to negotiate pricing on using BreezoMeter’s data. This allows for flexibility when speaking to governments of third-world countries who may not be able to afford the same premium as the United States EPA.

It is the passion of these entrepreneurs and the dedication to corporate social responsibility that makes BreezoMeter an ideal investment. BreezoMeter adheres to stricter self regulation of legal and ethical standards to ensure that every part of the company is aligned with the greater social mission laid out by the founders.

Additionally, beyond the potential capital returns BreezoMeter has relatively no carbon footprint because it is a data provider that has little overhead. It will also help reduce the carbon footprint of countries who embrace the technology because consumers will wake up to a weather report that is coupled with air quality data. Governments will be able to check areas of higher pollution and understand correlations between traffic and certain times of the days to create more environmentally friendly road policies (similar to London’s decision to start charging fees for cars entering the downtown area) (Happy City).  

Looking Forward: Clear Skies Ahead

BreezoMeter is posed for great success in its field and even the United States White House, Global Entrepreneurship Week, Forbes, and CNBC acknowledge the company’s success. BreezoMeter has been praised as one of the “20 of the world’s hottest startups” by CNBC for its revolutionary understanding of how “air pollution disperses through time and space in real time” (CNBC). As the top prize winner in the Global Entrepreneurship Week 2014 Startup Open, BreezoMeter was lauded as the kind of startup to use “the marketplace to make the world a better place.” Additionally, the United States White House honored BreezoMeter as “emerging entrepreneurs . . . who have taken on some of the world’s toughest challenges” (TimesOfIsrael).

We have discussed planning a meeting for next week and we will be able to perform some due diligence with the provided financial data from Q1 & Q2 of 2015. Please let me know your availability and I will be sure to set up a private meeting with Ziv and his team.

Closing Points

BreezoMeter is innovative not only because of the potential revenue that can be earned both in the private and public sectors, but also because of the impact it can have on the way citizens decide where to settle down. Counties and states will compete not only on job creation and tax benefits, but also by quality of air. BreezoMeter will also play an important role in the “‘Quantified Self’ revolution” that wearables have ignited (TechCrunch).

I know you must be busy, but a meeting with this startup could help us get a footing in their Series A round and provided they ‘exit’ in a few years, our reputation will be better known as a major player in the Social Enterprise sector of VC.

References

20 of the world's hottest start-ups of 2014. (2014, November 17). Retrieved July 25, 2015, from http://www.cnbc.com/2014/11/17/20-of-the-worlds-hottest-start-ups-of-2014.html?slide=5

About Us | Breezometer. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://breezometer.com/about-us/

Heubl, B. (n.d.). New Technology And Big Data Help You Breathe Fresh Air. Retrieved July 23, 2015, from http://techcrunch.com/2014/11/04/new-technology-lets-you-breathe-fresh-air/

Marich, M. (n.d.). Nov. 16-22, 2015. Retrieved July 20, 2015, from http://www.gew.co/blog/breezometer-real-time-air-quality-map-takes-top-prize-startup-open

Montgomery, C. (2013). Happy city. Toronto: Doubleday Canada.

Shamah, D. (n.d.). Israeli pollution app entrepreneurs to be feted at White House. Retrieved July 22, 2015, from http://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-pollution-app-entrepreneurs-to-be

-feted-at-white-house/