Ben Boyer, co-founder and executive chairman of biosafety tech company R-Zero, joined Cheddar to discuss how the company's products can help as Covid-19 cases begin to creep up.

Biosafety technology company R-Zero is aiming to make indoor spaces safer and healthier. Ben Boyer, co-founder and executive chairman of R-Zero, joined Cheddar to discuss how the company's products can help as Covid-19 cases begin to creep up.

Biosafety Tech Company R-Zero Aiming to Make Indoor Spaces Healthier

biosafety technology company are zero saying it is dedicated to making our shared indoor spaces safer healthier and more productive. And the startup says is achieving this by developing effective and innovative disinfection technologies. So joining me now is Ben Boyer, co founder and executive chair of R zero. Ben thanks so much for coming on such a timely topic especially as covid cases creep up and the flu is just around the corner as well. Talk to me more about what your company offers. Yeah we are the first biosafety technology company dedicated to making our shared indoor spaces safer, healthier and more productive. What that effectively means is that we as an organization started with an analysis of how people get sick and then look for the most effective technologies to prevent the spread of microorganisms. Um this is not just a covid problem as we are in the early innings of the what is expected to be a tough flu season. Um and then also the rise of RsV um these are technologies that can help prevent the spread of all types of viruses and bacteria. Okay. Um so I want you to talk me through some of the product offerings. The placement where they go in some of these buildings and hopefully we can show some imagery as well. Yeah so on the disinfection or infection prevention side we have three separate products. Um The first product we brought to market is called Arc. I've got that that's the one that you see in the image right there. This is a whole room disinfecting product before Covid. This was primarily used in health care settings. We figured out a way to build a better mousetrap ours is far more powerful and a fraction of the cost of the products that are typically sold to protect the surgical theater beam is a product that really competes with H back upgrades. An H back upgrade can can cost tens of millions of dollars in in a commercial setting, in a large commercial setting. And the topics associated with trying to create a safer space. With H Vac alone, it can be very cost prohibitive. We are in we are engaged with large tech companies as well as financial services businesses that have tried to mitigate the spread of Covid via bringing in 100% outdoor air and increasing their filtration from 8 to 13. And what they've seen is 30 to 40% more op ex or energy consumption as a result of that. Um We have the opportunity to create a safer space and do so by consuming 90% plus less energy. Um The last product that was shown in the previous side is five. This is a novel form of UV. C, which is human safe. Um And so as uh as compared to beam or arc which require um non human interaction being can be installed in a room with with with people but it sits at eight ft um uh at eight ft height. Um and that prevents human interaction. It's basically just creating air disinfection vibe offers the ability to disinfect in real time while you're sitting underneath the lamp. Um And that's a perfect product for restrooms, conference rooms, break rooms uh and and anything around food. How do you ensure the efficacy been of these products before people buy them? And then also when they're using them, I don't know if they have a battery life for instance or at a certain point you have to basically swap them out and get a new one. But how do you give customers that satisfaction that when they buy one of these products, it is gonna work? Yeah, it's a great question. So with regards to efficacy, all of our products are tested at a third party lab. Um there's candidly not enough regulation as it pertains to devices like ours or even the portable filters. Um it's interesting that will will on occasion, run up against products that are portable filters and if you go to their website, they might say that they disinfect a room to 99%. But if you look at the small print that's in a 350 barefoot room in an hour beam can disinfect 500 square feet every five minutes. Uh And so really at the end of the day, uh you know, our products are tested at the third party lab and we provide all of that data and information to our customers with regards to the device is actually operating efficiently. None of them are battery powered, but they're all IOT enabled and so we actually have a data feed of each product to ensure that we understand how often it's being used. We will then let our customers know when it's time to replace the bulbs and we will, we will send them off and have that done for them interesting. I'm just curious to Ben and in terms of the new money that you've raised as you look to expand the company, how do you plan to take this company into the next growth phase? Yeah, we're sitting at a really interesting intersection um, you know, some days we're competing against chemicals which is a great fight for us given um, they are very carbon intensive to both produce as well as to transport. Um, there's also a human health element. Um, and there's been countless exposure lawsuits by janitorial members that have been exposed to two chemicals and so certain days, that's the vector of competition. Others, it's really upgrades to h back were big believers in purification, but ultimately central HVAC upgrades alone really are are not great at preventing the spread of infectious disease. Um, the reason for that is you tend to get sick or stay healthy based on the area sharing in a room with someone. Um, not based on, on what's being passed with the entire building and so where we want to take this over time is to continue to help build, help enable healthy buildings infrastructure and do so with the sustainability lens. Our products are all food safe. They're entirely safe for humans to interact with. Um and we don't have the same energy issues that that you're running into with a lot of these green buildings where a lot of the energy efficiency gains come by sealing off the building. And as organizations try to combat what was once a very energy efficient building, but one that could lead to the spread of infectious disease by pulling in outside air. They're running into real issues with energy consumption. And our goal is to an equal organizations to have the best of both worlds, a safe space as well as one that can be energy efficient. Alright Ben Boy or co founder and executive chair of R Zero. Ben, thank you for coming out. Especially as we head into this cold and flu season.