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Tigeraire engineers and manufactures advanced airflow technology, featuring its Air Accelerator. This core innovation delivers personal cooling and anti-fog capabilities, integrating into athletic equipment like football helmets, industrial, and military protective gear. Active air circulation enhances user comfort and performance in demanding environments.
Jack Karavich founded Tigeraire in 2020, driven by the insight to improve athlete well-being during high-exertion sports. Collaborating with LSU Athletics, Karavich developed specialized helmet technologies, keeping football players cooler and more comfortable, directly addressing a critical need in protective sports equipment.
Tigeraire serves sectors requiring superior personal protective equipment: sports, industrial, and military personnel. The company envisions its proprietary cooling solutions becoming the standard for optimal thermal management in challenging conditions. Its mission is to advance safety and performance through innovative climate control systems.
Tigeraire has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round.
Tigeraire has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Tigeraire has raised $3.0M in total across 1 funding round.
Tigeraire's investors include Ferguson Ventures.
Tigeraire develops airflow acceleration technology, branded as Air Accelerators, that creates cooling zones in protective headgear like helmets and hard hats.[1][5][6] The company serves athletes in sports (e.g., football, baseball), industrial workers, and military users by solving overheating issues through evaporative cooling, which enhances comfort, safety, and performance in demanding environments.[1][2][3][7] Founded in 2020 and based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana (with ties to Richmond, Virginia), Tigeraire has raised $5.58M total funding, including a $830K seed round about a year ago, and holds 2 granted patents for wearable air circulation devices.[1][2][5] With 11-50 employees and revenue under $10M, it shows early growth via partnerships like LSU and scalable tech stack on AWS.[2][3]
Tigeraire was founded in summer 2020 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, by Jack Karavich, its CEO, who started with a simple idea: an air-conditioned football helmet to address athletes overheating from poor helmet ventilation.[4][5] Karavich's background in identifying unmet needs drove the pivot from sports-specific cooling to broader applications in industrial and military sectors, recognizing universal demand for headgear comfort.[2][4] Early traction came from a key partnership with LSU Innovation Park in 2021-2022, where elite college football players tested prototypes, yielding insights for expansion into baseball and other helmet-based sports.[3] Pivotal moments include filing patents in 2023 (granted 2024) and securing $825K funding in February 2024, fueling product launches like Zephyr and Cyclone models.[1][2][4]
Tigeraire rides the trend of performance-enhancing wearable tech in safety-critical sectors, where heat stress causes fatigue, injury, and reduced productivity—issues amplified by climate change and extreme work/sports conditions.[1][2][4] Timing aligns with rising demand for smart PPE post-2020, as sports (e.g., college football "arms race") and industries prioritize athlete/worker safety amid labor shortages.[3][6] Favorable market forces include regulatory pushes for heat mitigation in OSHA-guided industries and NCAA sports tech adoption, plus Tigeraire's seed-stage positioning for OEM partnerships.[1][2] It influences the ecosystem by democratizing cooling via retrofit solutions, potentially setting standards for evaporative tech in headgear and inspiring similar innovations in wearables.[4][7]
Tigeraire's momentum—patents, LSU-tested products, and multi-market expansion—positions it for Series A funding and OEM deals in 2026, targeting $10M+ revenue via sports leagues and industrial suppliers.[1][2][6] Trends like AI-integrated PPE, global heatwave regulations, and military modernization will accelerate adoption, while scaling manufacturing could challenge incumbents in a $multi-billion safety gear market.[2][4] Its influence may evolve from niche innovator to category leader, much like early fitness trackers reshaped athletics, by proving cooling boosts performance metrics. Tigeraire exemplifies how a simple cooling fix for helmets unlocks safer, high-stakes environments across industries.[1][5]
Tigeraire has raised $3.0M across 1 funding round. Most recently, it raised $3.0M Seed in July 2022.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jul 1, 2022 | $3M Seed | — | Ferguson Ventures | Announced |
