Interview with Charlie Steere, Founder of Kebao

Charlie Steere, Founder at Kebao

Kebao is a plug and play air purification unit which is the size of a suitcase used for small-medium sized rooms. It provides the highest standard of indoor care for businesses offices, surgeries and veterinary clinics etc. It has been created to be environmentally friendly with no filter replacement and costing less than £10/year to run.

Kebao Air 3 combines sleek design with cutting edge technology that completely eliminates 99.99% of airborne pollutants, viruses, bacteria and allergens, to provide surgical grade air and deodorisation.

The benefit of this to somebody depends on the person and the environment; it can help reduce hay fever symptoms, improve concentration and peaceful rest, lessen the amount of pollution in congested areas and also reduce the amount of viral/bacterial load in areas with poor ventilation.

Kebao’s technology has been extensively developed by pioneers of clean air technology in Japan and has been tested against various types of pollutants in state-of-the-art German testing facilities.
 
 
Kebao Air 3 – Virus killing commercial air purifier
 

How did you come up with the idea for the company?

 
Kebao, like many businesses, had a non-conventional start when my girlfriend hurt her ankle in Japan. After visiting the hospital for medical advice, we were struck by how popular the use of air purifiers in hospital rooms was in the country.

I am a dentist by trade and, while I knew how stringent cross infection control is in a dental setting, it struck me as odd there were no protocols in place to prevent airborne contamination within practices. We thought using air purifiers to accelerate the air exchanges and to kill viruses and pollution for the safety of patients and staff made sense for dentists and other health and business settings – this is how Kebao was born.

The individual technologies used in Kebao are not new however, this is the first time they have been bought together to create a complete clean air solution. Kebao technology now serves in medical and office facilities across the globe and was chosen to be installed in hospitals in Wuhan upon the outbreak of the novel Covid-19 due to its unrivalled combination of technology which stops bacterial and viral proliferation from occurring and thus, ensuring occupational exposure is not a risk.
 

 

What advice would you give to other aspiring entrepreneurs?

 
The best piece of advice I can give is that when you start your own business it takes longer than you think to push projects through. Patience is vital for any entrepreneur, and it’s something you have to learn incredibly quickly.

Alongside this, I would say before launching a product into any market, it is advisable to get feedback from targeted segments. It’s vital that any product is customer-centered, so ensuring you are on the right track before launch is important if you’re going to do well.
 

What can we hope to see from Kebao in the future?

 
We have, very excitingly, just launched Kebao Air 3 in the UK market, so this is a big focus for us from a business perspective at the moment. When it comes to the technology however, we are always looking to the future and so are currently developing air purifiers that can be fitted within central air conditioning systems for office buildings and airports.

It’s an exciting development for us and really opens up our audience, allowing more people to benefit from clean air environments.