Breathe99, a Twin Cities startup creating high-tech breathing masks, launched a Kickstarter Thursday morning to fund its new product, the B2 Mask. The company gave itself 20 days to raise $20,000 but met its goal in under two hours on the first day.
As of Thursday afternoon, Breathe99 has raised $53,426 from 422 backers.
The B2 is a reusable respirator that its creators say filters 99% of common contaminants and reduces filter cost and waste by half. It can also be easily cleaned by putting it in the dishwasher or cleaning it with an alcohol-based spray. The only part of the mask that needs to be replaced is the filters, which the company says can be produced quickly and at a low cost.
Breathe99 CEO and co-founder Max Bock-Aronson is a design engineer at Worrell, a firm in Northeast Minneapolis that creates and tests medical products. He and the rest of the Breathe99 team have been developing the mask for around four years.
Those that contribute to Breathe99's Kickstarter campaign have the option to select a "Give One, Get One" reward level that provides a B2 Mask to a frontline healthcare worker.
Breathe99 previously attempted a Kickstarter campaign for its B1 Mask last year. It raised just under $30,000 of its $90,000 goal.
Consumers aren't the only ones supporting Breathe99. The company is also seeing support from philanthropic groups, including Venn Foundation. Venn Foundation deploys seed capital to startups in the form of Program-Related Investments, a special kind of philanthropic investment intended to advance a charitable goal.
These PRIs are powered by contributions from donors in the form of donor-advised funds. Just about anyone can open one of these DAFs with Venn and recommend that their donations be used to make PRIs.
Venn Foundation is providing Breathe99 with a PRI loan that comes with initial anchor support of $100,000 provided by the Bush Foundation, Damascus Road Partners, Morgan Family Foundation, the Xancharlize Fund and an anonymous donor. The PRI goal is $300,000.
Additionally, two Twin Cities-based companies, Protolabs and Worrell Design, have both directly supported the company by providing capital, expertise and services.
"Given the severe shortage of personal protective equipment right now, B2 Mask is needed in our hospitals and homes as soon as possible," Mark Steburg, managing partner of Damascus Road Partners, said in a statement. "We urge others to join us in supporting Breath99 through Venn's PRI and Kickstarter as the company quickly ramps up production."
