clean-air
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Hyungjoo Kim
Hyungjoo Kim is a dentist-turned-inventor and the founder and CEO of Carepod, a wellness hardware company built around a humidifier you can actually take apart and sterilize. Frustrated that every humidifier he bought for his sick daughter grew mold and bacteria within weeks, he engineered a filter-free, three-part, stainless-steel design that can be boiled clean and comes out 99.9% germ-free. Founded in South Korea in 2015, Carepod's award-winning humidifiers now sell across the United States, Canada, Australia and beyond, and have been featured by Entrepreneur, Forbes and Health Magazine.
Clarity Movement Co.
Clarity Movement Co. is a Berkeley-based climate-tech company that builds solar-powered, internet-connected air quality sensors and pairs them with a cloud analytics platform sold as 'Sensing-as-a-Service.' Founded by UC Berkeley graduates in 2014, Clarity makes it cheap and easy for governments, schools, communities, and companies to measure pollutants like PM2.5 and NO2 at street level - data that has historically come from a handful of expensive, sparse reference stations. Its flagship Node-S device has been deployed across 250+ cities in 85+ countries, powering networks like Breathe London and Open Air Chicago.
Carepod
Carepod makes the world's simplest and cleanest stainless steel humidifiers - filter-free, three-piece units with hospital-grade interiors that can be sterilized with boiling water. Invented by dentist Dr. Hyung Joo Kim after he found conventional humidifiers were impossible to clean and breeding bacteria, Carepod sells doctor-designed, award-winning humidifiers direct to consumers. After becoming the top-selling humidifier in Korea, the brand launched in the U.S. in 2021 and has shipped hundreds of thousands of units worldwide.
David Lu
David Lu is the co-founder and CEO of Clarity Movement Co., a Berkeley-based climate tech company that deploys hyperlocal air quality monitoring networks across 85+ countries. Growing up in smog-choked Shanghai and arriving to California's startling blue skies as a teenager, he turned personal contrast into a global mission. Clarity's tissue-box-sized solar-powered sensors have recorded over 500 million measurements, informed London's low-emission zones, and earned Lu a spot on TIME's 100 Most Influential Climate Leaders of 2025.