From AirCare to EarthCare.ai

If you wanted to check the air quality in your neighborhood in the late 2010s (especially if you were in the Balkans), you were probably using the AirCare application. This handy app captured public attention, and one of its founders, Gorjan Jovanovski, won the UN prize as Young Champion of the Earth in the process.

The future looked bright for the startup, and the dream of scaling quickly was almost realised. Until it wasn’t.

What happened to AirCare?

We first met Gorjan Jovanovski and Dragan Galevski, while we supported the Seavus accelerator in Skopje in 2020. As part of that cohort, the co-founders of AirCare were determined to monetize the app as soon as possible.

After the initial momentum, AirCare gained a global user base. The app successfully fulfilled user needs—it accurately displayed the level of air pollution in numerous cities all around the globe. It was free for end users, and, as Gorjan recalls, this proved to be an existential threat:

People had gotten used to this information being readily available for free, and it was very difficult to find features we could monetize on the app to make it into a sustainable business. We were generating a couple hundred euros per month at the maximum. And, of course, that wasn't enough to run any startup, nor to even call it a startup. So we got stuck.

Finally, despite all the praise and early traction, AirCare reached a plateau as a free app at the end of 2022.

Pivoting—how to do it right

In early 2023, it was time for a change. Determined to keep going, Gorjan and Dragan applied for the Techstars Berlin acceleration program. The program’s response was direct:

Long story short, they told us: ‘We like what you guys are doing and like you as a team. However, we don't like that you're B2C. We only support B2B companies. So, if you want to join, figure out how to become a B2B company and get back to us.’

Around the same time, the Founders Retreat was taking place in North Macedonia. At that event, inspired by Swiss EP experts Maja Voje, Tim Berce, and Stoyan Yankov, the co-founders got to work. Instead of spending the evenings with the other founders, they locked themselves in a hotel room, working on the key to getting their ticket to Techstars Berlin.

Could they open their Application Programming Interface (API) and sell air quality data to businesses? The idea was good enough to get them into Techstars in Berlin, but, still, no one was willing to pay for the service.

At that point, we changed our approach. Instead of pushing ideas down people's throats and hoping that they'd like them, we tried to ask and understand the problem before we built something.

After talking to dozens of potential clients, they figured out that insurance companies (their initial target market) were interested in bulk climate data, so the team pivoted once again, andEarthCare.ai was born.

Pilot programs and funding—the new beginning

With a 120k investment from Techstars, Gorjan and Dragan returned to Skopje, expanded their team, rented office space, and doubled down on making their vision a reality. They launched their first pilot program with German and Swedish insurance companies, and realised this too was proving challenging.

We learned that some industries are more traditional and slow-moving than others, as was the case with insurances. Yes, they needed the product, but would only make a move if it was a life-or-death decision, something that is a ticket for disaster for startups who need early traction.

It was time for another pivot. Again, the Swiss EP was here to help. in June 2024, Gorjan attended an investor event in Zurich, Early-stage startup investing in the Central East Europe region co-organized by Swiss EP, Impact Hub, Kickstart Innovation, and PurposeTech, in partnership with the Greater Zurich Area. The event aimed to showcase the best the Balkan region has to offer in the verticals of health tech and climate tech. EarthCare.ai was there and was able to share its latest features and advancements with a diverse foreign audience.

This experience helped the team define what EarthCare.ai is today: a climate intelligence platform that aggregates climate data and transforms it into understandable, actionable insights businesses can use. Gorjan and Dragan started 2025 by securing multiple new enterprise clients, a 350k investment from regional VC investment fund South Central Ventures & Zephyr Angel Group and a refined direction. A new chapter is open and we’re looking forward to seeing it unfold.

As for AirCare, the team still keeps it as one of their products, given its immense social impact, and it's still available as a free app for anyone who wants to know the quality of air they are breathing.