UrbanZee is an exciting young startup focussing on making air quality measuring more widely available in cities around the world. It has developed several services to measure air quality of entire cites in detail and meaningfully involve citizens in a dialogue with governments to find immediate and long-term solutions.
As the company is current working on closing its first round of funding, it needed an experienced entrepreneur to guide the company through the next founding rounds. CEO Aschwin van der Woude and majority shareholder asked Kalle Koskela, a local serial entrepreneur, to fulfil the role of chairman of the board.
“Since meeting entrepreneur Koskela in the SparkUp startup community in Turku, we have been sharing thoughts and ideas not only about our own business ideas but also others”, explains CEO van der Woude, “this leads to mutually benefiting from these discussions and actively helping each others startups”.
Entrepreur Koskela’s startup, focussed on e-sports, came out of the BusinessUp accelerator the year before UrbanZee entered. His e-sports startup quickly acquired its first funding round, using his experience in two earlier startups. “After being introduced to the UrbanZee concept, I got intrigued as it had potential although it was still a raw idea initially”, remembered entrepreneur Koskela, “over time I saw the idea grow and the company is currently on the brink of growth and that is always exciting to be a part of”.
Since the BusinessUp accelerator, UrbanZee’s concept continued to evolve based on feedback from advisors, including from Entrepreneur Koskela, the AtmostHack hackathon, and during the EU Copernicus accelerator.
“The support and advice I have received from Mr. Koskela has been invaluable, not only to the business but also in the personal support an early stage entrepreneur requires”, concludes CEO van der Woude, “now that we are reading our first funding round, it was only natural to ask him to become UrbanZee’s chairman of the board”.