- Air Up was founded by Lena J眉ngst, Tim J盲ger, Jannis Koppitz, Fabian Schlang and Simon N眉esch.
- The startup flavours plain water through scent alone.
- So far, Air Up have raised a total $67.8 million over 5 funding rounds.
Website: https://uk.air-up.com/
Flavouring water through fragrance alone, our Startup of the Week is M眉nchen-based Air Up! The five-person founding team started in 2018 to create flavoured water without having to compromise on either health or taste 鈥� claiming 鈥淲e all know how important water is, but let鈥檚 face it, water can be boring, dull, and monotonous. But what choice do we have? The alternatives on our supermarket shelves invariably contain untold amounts of sugar, additives, and who knows what other rubbish. So you, the consumer, must make a decision: health, or taste?鈥�
鈥淏ut why make that choice, when you can get the best of both worlds?鈥�
Air Up have created a refillable bottle that can flavour plain drinking water solely through scent. Users simply have to fill up their bottle with plain, unflavoured water (compatible with sparking and still), pop an aroma pod into the holder at the top of the Air Up bottle, activate the pod, and drink!
While most of us think we taste through our tongue this is only partially correct. The tongue is responsible for reading basic flavour information (e.g. sweet, sour, salty and bitter), with the receptors in your nose filling much of the rest in. As Air Up state – 鈥淭aste really happens in your nose鈥�
When drinking water from the bottle, users will also suck up air that the aroma pod fills with natural flavour. With this, you鈥檙e then able to drink unflavoured water that tastes flavoured. Through this, users can enjoy a range of different flavours to their water without the sugar and additives that come with your typical flavoured water product.
Air Up sells its bottles in 鈥淐harcoal Grey鈥� and 鈥淧earl White鈥�, alongside a variety of flavours 鈥� including Kola, Wild Berry, Mango Passion Fruit, Watermelon and more.
So far, the startup have raised a total $67.8 million over the course of 5 funding rounds, their latest announced in September of this year 鈥� a Venture Round that raised 鈧�40 million.
