Meet Sissi Liu, Co-Founder of Metalmark

Below is the story of Metalmark, as told by their co-founder Sissi Liu

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Motto or mission: The Looonnnggg-Lasting Commercial Air Purifier

Founders: Sissi Liu, CEO, Dr. Tanya Shirman, VP of Materials Design, Dr. Elijah Shirman, VP of Technology

Year founded:  2017 Stage: Seed Location: Cambridge, MA

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Intro

Climate change is an existential challenge and it's been driving my work in the cleantech and sustainability fields for over 20 years. Along with my co-founders, I saw the potential of creating a new and more sustainable solution for significantly improving indoor air quality. 

During the seven years it took to develop the product, COVID has made organizations far more aware of the need for better indoor air quality (IAQ). We typically spend 90% or so of our time indoors, and as a result we breathe in high concentrations of fine particulates (PM 1.0), VOCs, bioaerosls such as viruses and bacteria, among others. This can cause many serious health problems and losses in productivity. 

While traditional commercial air purification systems with HEPA filters can tackle some of these challenges, they usually need to have their filters replaced about twice a year, making them expensive and inconvenient to operate. Meanwhile, ventilating with outdoor air is expensive and energy intensive. 

Solution 

Metalmark Tatama is the first self-cleaning commercial air purifier. We start with HEPA-grade filter media, the gold standard in air purification, which removes at least 99.97% of particles. Then, we supplement it with our proprietary coating that was initially inspired by the materials of butterfly wings. This multi-functional material supports the filter renewal and behaves as both a sorbent and catalyst. About once a month, Tatama renews the filter, breaking down captured particles. As a result, Tatama filters could last up to five years under normal usage. That's about 10X the lifetime of traditional filters, greatly reducing operating costs, maintenance, waste, and climate impact. On top of this, Tatama is designed with commercial buildings in mind. Instead of taking up room like other air purifiers, Tatama is installed in the ceiling so it can deliver cleaner air without hogging valuable real estate. The onboard sensors and network intelligence bring IAQ data to the facility manager's fingertips, supporting building operational decision making.

Business Progress

We have successfully piloted the prototype and we are producing our first production units. Tatama is available for pre-order now; pilot options are also available.

Culture

Metalmark is founded on embracing sustainability and diversity as our core tenants. For this reason, we are a public benefit corporation and have grown our diverse team organically. We value multi-disciplinary thinking with nature inspired solutions as guiding principles for our innovation and designs. This is carried through to how we operate as a business as well.