Vitesy Air Purifiers Closed a Round Worth €3.2 Million, Led by Doorway

Vitesy, a company founded in 2015 in San Francisco (California) by the Italians Paolo Ganis, Vincenzo Vitiello and Alessio D’Andrea to produce smart devices for air purification and monitoring, has closed a new round, this time of €3.2 million.

The startup’s goal is to enhance the technological innovation of its products and establish Shelfy , a device that can be placed in the fridge and promises to extend the life of food by reducing the bacterial load present in the air. A contribution to the reduction of food waste in the strategic reference markets for the company: Europe, USA and Canada.

Doorway, an innovative Italian fintech company that operates in venture capital, as well as several family offices and business angels, participated in the round. Vitesy has already raised a total of €10 million and claims to have sold 12,000 Shelfys in 80 countries around the world, “collecting over a million euros in pre-orders through a crowdfunding campaign launched on the Indiegogo and Kickstarter platforms.”

The cleantech sector, moreover, is in strong development “with growing attention to issues such as air quality and the reduction of food waste, both by consumers and companies”, commented Antonella Grassigli , CEO and founder by Doorway.

Paolo Ganis underlined: “This year too we managed to raise an important round of financing and to do so the trust of strategic investors was fundamental, essential to support us in this moment of corporate scaling. We are really satisfied with our latest Shelfy product, which is exceeding all our wildest expectations and this is what we want to focus on today. And we want to continue the path undertaken by innovating and demonstrating that all this is possible in Italy too.”

Shelfy works like this: its photocatalytic action allows you to break down the bacterial and fungal load up to 10 times and reduce bad odors by degrading the molecules responsible. The founders explain: “Then there is a washable filter which allows for savings in environmental and economic terms, as well as the door opening sensor and the Vitesy Hub App which help monitor the energy consumption of the refrigerator.

Recyclable and repairable, each part is assembled with interlocking joints, thus avoiding the use of glue; Furthermore, the battery lasts up to 30 days and can be recharged in approximately 7 hours”. Shelfy won two important awards such as Best Product Award at the EMEA Channel Summit and the Innovation Award at Cibus Tech in Parma.

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This is the third round of Vitesy

At the end of February 2022 Vitesy had closed a round of €2.6 million. The capital increase was subscribed for €1.2 million by the Rilancio Startup Fund , managed by Cdp Venture Capital sgr and the rest by private investors organized by the Italian equity crowdfunding portal Doorway (€1.4 million). And that previously there had been one in January 2021 for €1.2 million.

It was led by a club deal of private investors also organized on that occasion by the Doorway portal, which had raised €500,000 through its community and had also involved external business angels, who committed a further €500,000. The remaining €200,000 of capital had been disbursed in the form of a bridge loan. The collection started in autumn 2020.

Vitesy is a company made up of scientists, engineers and designers who study products to eliminate and monitor indoor air pollution, certified by the WHO to be up to five times higher than outdoor air pollution.

The startup bases its business model on the development of three important technologies such as phytoremediation, which is the intensive exploitation of the ability of some plants to filter pollutants, photocatalysis, i.e. the use of a brand new nanomaterial effective in killing viruses and bacteria, and some proprietary algorithms that process air quality data provided by sensors to offer services to companies and institutions.

Vitesy has also launched other products on e-commerce: Eteria, a compact air purifier without filters to be replaced with a sophisticated widespread and modular air quality monitoring system. And Natede Smart, the indoor air purifier which, thanks to advanced technology and aesthetics, received pre-orders for €1 million in just over a month.

As for Doorway, it is an equity investing platform in which institutional, professional and semi-professional investors, business angels, entrepreneurs, private equity funds, PIRs, family offices and private bankers can invest in selected highly scalable startups and SMEs with financially sustainable business models. Based in Bologna, it was founded by Antonella Grassigli who still holds the main share with 37.95% of the capital. In May 2020 it closed a seed round of €500,000, started at the end of 2019 and became a benefit company at the beginning of 2021.

Doorway has obtained authorization to operate in Europe, based on the new European Regulation on crowdfunding which came into force on November 10th.

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(Featured image by Alvaro Bernal via Unsplash)

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