Podcast Episode

Greenairy is building smart plant towers to clean the air in your office; plus, Robot data startup Mecka AI nabs $60M from Sequoia

TechCrunch Startup News

Oct 8, 20267 min

Who’s talking

2 speakers
Speaker 17 min · 93%
Travis Hoyum31 sec · 7%

1Transcript2 turns · 7 min

Speaker 10:02

This is TechCrunch. This episode is brought to you by Framer. You know what's absolutely terrifying? A bad website. Or worse, one that doesn't work. Avoid that nightmare and use Framer. Framer is the AI website builder that helps creators, teams, and businesses ship production-ready sites faster than ever while getting every detail right. Prompt, inspect, edit, and publish in one place at a whole new pace. So I was new to this whole website building thing, but Framer helped me get set up and running incredibly fast. For instance, I wanted to add a blog to my website. It was super easy. Starting with a basic blog page template, I added some breakpoints and then jumped into customizing my layout, adding my own special touches with Framer's intuitive tools, and bam! I was ready to start letting my thoughts flow. See why thousands are trusting Framer to help build their websites. Learn how you can get more out of your site from a Framer specialist or get started building for free today at framer.com slash tcstartups for 30% off a Framer Pro annual plan. That's framer.com slash tcstartups. Rules and restrictions may apply. How clean is the air in your workplace? That's the question Tanvi Tambre and Lakshya Sarov began investigating when they were engineering students who worked in their university makerspace. In fact, Tambre said via email that while working in the space, they were unknowingly exposed to toxic fumes from laser cutters, 3D printers, and soldering irons. But they didn't realize it until Tambre's best friend fainted and had to go to the hospital. After that, Tom Bray said, "...we began investigating indoor air pollution and realized it was an invisible but dangerous health risk, especially in schools, offices, hotels, salons, and any commercial buildings where air conditioning prevents windows from being open." Those issues persist even when a building is equipped with air purifiers, as their makerspace was. The problem, according to Seraf, is that although purifiers are good at cleaning out particulate matter like dust and pollen, they are less effective at removing toxic gases such as carbon dioxide, formaldehyde, and benzene. many of which are classified as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, chemicals that evaporate easily into the air. Tombray said that VOCs are linked to chronic disease and sick building syndrome, a condition in which occupants experience health effects and discomfort after spending time in a building, even though no specific cause or illness has been identified. She also pointed to Harvard research showing that improving indoor air quality improved cognitive function and productivity as well. That's why the pair is targeting toxic gases in the workplace with their startup Greenery, which will be part of startup Battlefield 200 at this year's TechCrunch Disrupt. Greenery's approach centers on building plant towers that are supposed to draw in air and Break down toxic gases and then release the purified air. As Seraf put it, a plant in a pot cleans air slowly, but when we change the conditions around the plant, it cleans air much faster and better than these conventional methods. Saraf also said that while

2Episode notes

As it turns out, the cure for stuffy, chemical-infused office air might be a tower of leafy greenery.

Also, Mecka AI pays people to record everyday tasks.

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