- Air Up was founded by Lena Jüngst, Tim Jäger, Jannis Koppitz, Fabian Schlang and Simon Nüesch.
- 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 München-based Air Up! The five-person founding team started in 2018 to create flavoured water without having to compromise on either health or taste – claiming “We all know how important water is, but let’s 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?”
“But why make that choice, when you can get the best of both worlds?”
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 – “Taste really happens in your nose”
When drinking water from the bottle, users will also suck up air that the aroma pod fills with natural flavour. With this, you’re 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 “Charcoal Grey” and “Pearl White”, alongside a variety of flavours – 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 – a Venture Round that raised €40 million.
