Air up expands into the USA

The Munich-based start-up brings Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary on board as investors.

The start-up Air up now wants to take off in the U.S. market, the company announced on Linkedin announced. To this end, the company has opened a headquarters in Santa Monica and has already hired 35 employees. As part of the expansion, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary are also joining as investors.

"We're excited to change the way Americans consume water - through scented water," the company writes. Seventy-five percent of Americans are chronically dehydrated, it said. The startup would now like to change that. Air up has developed a drinking system that gives water different flavors using only scent. The start-up has recently come in for some criticism for its apparently unkeepable promises of sustainability.

Fabian Schlang, Tim Jäger, Lena Jüngst, Simon Nüesch and Jannis Koppitz founded the start-up in 2018. By now, the company claims to have two million customers. In addition to Germany, Air up also sells its products in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UK, Italy and Sweden. After launching in the U.S., the company plans to focus on moving a large part of its production to Europe.