Blue Earth Summit

From a coffee conversation at Arup to global deployments with airlines and hospitals, Butterfly Air is proving that nature often holds the answers, we just have to listen.

Listen to the full podcast on Spotify or watch the full podcast on Youtube.

 

From Bed Springs to Breakthroughs

For Butterfly Air founder Nick Munro, innovation has always begun with curiosity.

An engineer, designer, and entrepreneur, his career began not with sensors or software, but with bed springs turned into egg cups. That quirky idea became a sell-out success in Habitat and Bloomingdale's’s and earned him Young Entrepreneur of the Year straight out of Imperial College London and the Royal College of Art .

“I’ve always loved problem-solving,” Nick tells Blue Earth Ventures Co-founder Guy Hayler on the latest Blue Earth Ventures Podcast.

“From that first business, I learned everything about developing ideas from scratch, raising money, manufacturing, getting paid, it was the deep end. And that problem-solving mindset has stuck with me ever since.”

 

The Coffee That Changed Everything

Years later, during a talk on wellness in the built environment at Arup, a simple coffee conversation would spark Butterfly Air into life.

Arup’s Head of Wellness mentioned their frustration: “We can’t find an air quality system we can confidently recommend to our clients.”

Nick’s wife, Ali, an interior designer, replied almost instinctively:

“You mean like the butterfly thing? When butterflies appear, it’s nature’s way of telling us the air is good.”

That idea landed, poetic, visual, and powerful. Within minutes, the three had mapped out the triangle that would shape the company: market need, story, and solution.

Nick took the challenge to his team at Imperial. What followed was a journey from concept to patent, prototype, and product, all built around one mission: to make air quality visible, relatable, and actionable.

 

Designing Air You Can Trust

Butterfly Air’s innovation lies in something called Laminar Flow, a patented technology that makes airflow through sensors more stable and accurate, eliminating the unreliable readings that have plagued cheaper devices.

The result: data you can trust.

That accuracy is crucial because what Butterfly measures goes far beyond CO₂. Their sensors detect particulates, VOCs (chemicals like formaldehyde or toluene), temperature, and humidity, the five key metrics that define indoor air quality.

“Most people don’t realise how much the air around them affects how they feel, think, and perform,” Nick explains. “From diesel particles drifting in from the street, to chemical residues from cleaning products, these things affect cognitive function, productivity, and long-term health.”

The Butterfly sensor glows softly in response to changing air conditions, making invisible data visible, an elegant fusion of science, storytelling, and design.

 

A Triple Bottom Line for the Built World

When Blue Earth’s Guy Hayler asks why companies are adopting Butterfly, Nick’s answer is clear:

“You get a triple bottom line: You improve health and wellbeing. You progress your ESG goals. And you save money through smarter energy use.”

Case studies at Imperial College have already shown up to 40% energy savings from better-informed ventilation and purification. That’s huge, for both the planet and the bottom line.

Butterfly’s clients now include airlines, hospitals, and global co-working operators, with deployments live in London and beyond. The company is also working closely with the International WELL Building Institute, aligning its technology with the global WELL Building Standard.

 

Building a Business That Breathes

Butterfly Air operates on a SaaS model, offering clients a simple subscription that combines hardware, data, and ongoing support.

“Clients don’t just want a beautiful object,” Nick says. “They want meaningful, actionable data that helps them improve their spaces. We’ve designed the whole business around that.”

The company has raised £1.5 million to date, including Innovate UK funding, and holds patents in the UK, US, and China. Now, it’s opening a new funding round of £1 million to scale production, expand its team, and meet global demand.

 

The Market, and the Mission

The market for indoor air quality data is projected to reach $9.5 billion within five years, but for Nick and his team, the ambition runs deeper.

“We want to make a meaningful contribution to a sustainable future,” he says. “If we can help cut 40% of a building’s energy burn, and replicate that globally, that’s impact you can measure.”

 

Blue Earth Ventures: Backing Innovation That Breathes

For Blue Earth Ventures, Butterfly Air represents exactly what the portfolio is about, real-world innovation with regenerative impact.

As Guy puts it in the podcast:

“You’ve found a problem, built the solution, and proven the model. Now it’s about scaling, and we’re excited to help connect you to the investors and customers who can unlock the next chapter.”

From startups turning seaweed into packaging (like Notpla) to those improving the air we breathe, the Blue Earth Ventures ecosystem continues to grow, shaping the future of sustainable business, one breakthrough at a time.