Molekule Raises $58M Series C

Air purification startup Molekule landed $58 million for its Series C round, the company announced Tuesday.

Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily

The fresh cash will be used to invest in research and development and scale the business, Molekule co-founder Jaya Rao said in an interview with Crunchbase News.

While the Molekule air purifiers have only been on the market for a couple years, the company has essentially been in the works for two decades, according to Rao.

“We’ve been working in some way shape or form on this company for more than 20 years,” Rao said. “Either academic research, or boots on the ground creating the product.”

Most air purifiers on the market are really air filters, Rao said, because they catch particles. Molekule’s devices, on the other hand, use photo electrochemical oxidation to actually destroy pollutants.

The air purifiers have grown in popularity and developed somewhat of a following–although it’s also received less-than-favorable scores from reviewers like Wirecutter and Consumer Reports.

Rao declined to share any revenue metrics, but did say the company has strong repeat customers and has seen a 3x increase in its year-over-year filter subscription revenue since the company started selling products.

Molekule currently sells an air purifier for $799 and an “Air Mini” for $399. Amazon was Molekule’s first step out of the direct-to-consumer space, besides a couple of collaborations, like with the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and New York’s Museum of Modern Art. But with the new funding, the company is “looking at how can we be more available to consumers in the channels that they’re most interested in,” Rao said.

The new funding brings Molekule’s total funding to $96.4 million, according to Crunchbase. Molekule raised its $10.1 million Series A, led by Crosslink Capital, in July 2017. It raised its $25 million Series B, which was led by Foundry Group, in November 2018.

Illustration Credit: Li-Anne Dias