A Louisiana startup company that created interior helmet fans for the LSU football team when they added face shields for COVID, has signed with a Silicon Valley venture capital firm as their lead investor. Jack Karavich is the founder and CEO of Tigeraire the company that created the helmet fans known as the Cyclone.
“And the teams were struggling with it (face shields), in the heat especially, we came in trying to solve that problem back in August last year and just found face shield or not guys love a nice cool breeze in their face all the time,” said Karavich.
General Catalyst, the venture capital firm behind Venmo, Airbnb, and TikTok is now investing in the hot new company that keeps players cool. This makes Tigeraire the first company in the state to ever attract a seed round investment from a Global Top 50 Venture Capital firm.
Karavich said LSU football players use the Tigeraire Cyclone during practice and game time.
“Just having that breathability, that increase in breathability, just affords for a more comfortable playing environment. And at the end of the day comfort is performance, if players are comfortable, they’re going to be competing at their best,” said Karavich.
Karavich said the two fans in the helmet produce the equivalent of up to a 25 mile per hour breeze over a player’s face and for the players that like to wear visors, they’ve been able to tweak the fans to help reduce fogging.
Since Tigeraire began making headlines, Karavich said LSU alums in the construction industry have even requested a Cyclone model for hardhats to help keep their workers cool.
“It’s really been just a snowball since then, I think building a custom one for the hardhat was a no brainer for us. We’re releasing that at the end of this year actually,” said Karavich.
In addition to LSU, Karavich said they just sent a shipment of the Cyclone to starters at Texas A&M.
For more information go to Tigeraire.com
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