Beate Stevens is CEO of Aercount. Aerocount wants to create clean air for everyone and is developing several products to do so. The first product, the particulate meter, is now on the market. Upcoming products should not only measure air quality, but also improve it.

This video was made in cooperation with Startup Stage of ChemistryNL.

How does the particulate meter work?

‘I come from a laser department where we measure all kinds of particles in low concentrations. I studied the multidisciplinary major Science in Nijmegen and that’s where the particulate meter was developed. That took about two years and mainly happened alongside my studies. We use lasers to measure the concentration of particulate matter and it is partially patented, so I don’t want to reveal too much about it. The less you say, the less likely it is that someone will copy it.’

Where does your business stand now?

‘We are breaking even these days. The next goal is to scale up. Alongside that scale-up, we use the profits to develop new products. We now produce them in the Netherlands at our office, so they are all handmade. It can’t stay that way when we do expand our production.’

What are you doing within the company now?

‘We are still developing. I also work on production and sales and make a lot of customer calls. We are taking various forms of coaching to support our scale up ambitions. I became a little less beta than I originally am and also a bit of a salesperson. Today I came straight from the lab. The particles we’re measuring now are one and a half microns to ten microns and we want to get to nanometers.’