Meet Valpas: Getting rid of bed bugs with bioengineered material and IoT
So here’s a scenario: You and your significant other, the Indian Ocean, sweet waves to ride and a comfy bungalow. Oh, and bed bugs. This is the real-life origin story of Valpas, an IoT-based solution for getting rid of those nasty creepy crawlies. After Valpas CEO Martim Gois had traveled back from Indonesia to Finland in 2013, he was covered by bite marks. He suspected the bugs had traveled with him, which led to an inspection and spraying of his apartment by the exterminators. Frustrated, Martim started his first company, Helle Oy, specializing in heat-based bed bug control services, which evolved into Valpas in 2017, the first and only autonomous bed bug system in the world.
During the past years, one third of global travellers have in one way or another changed their behavior when it comes to booking and planning their trips because of bed bugs. Over time, the insects have developed an immunity to existing chemical extermination methods. Due to the high volume and frequency of travellers, they are now able to spread into countries and cities beyond their original ecosystems. Several directories ranking hotels based on their bed bug status have emerged, and Tripadvisor currently returns 140,000+ hits with insect-related negative reviews. It goes without saying that appearing on any of these listings is nothing short of a PR disaster.
”Bed bugs crawl up a Valpas bed leg before falling into a smart trap”
The hotels currently have two, albeit not very effective, ways to tackle the issue. The hotel staff either checks the room and changes the bed linen after every guest — business as usual — or they call in the exterminators to spray or heat the room if an infestation is suspected. Neither of these options is able to sufficiently reduce the bed bug population or to proactively prevent their emergence, as it usually takes up to 4–6 weeks before the bed bugs can be spotted with the naked eye.
Valpas’ business idea is based on the understanding of bed bugs’ biology: They are attracted to carbon dioxide, body warmth and pheromones, and use the bed legs to climb up into bed when a hotel guest is sleeping (gross!).
Valpas produces specially bioengineered bed legs that look like they are made of military-grade carbon fiber, and which the bugs can easily use to climb up. At the top of the leg, they fall into a small trap equipped with a real time smart sensor, through which the hotel staff can monitor the rooms with traps that need emptying. The legs are simply screwed in, just like any other bed leg in your regular Ikea catalogue, and no special installation is required. Valpas is already in use at F6 hotel in Helsinki, Duxiana in Malmö, and soon in several high-end hotels in Dubai.
”We want to provide a contemporary and conscious experience to the global travel community”
The Valpas team is a true cross-section of Aalto University: The five-person team comprising business, engineering and design alumni has built something the global travel community that appreciates experiences, wellness and sustainability, wants. ”Our mission is to turn the dialogue around, from the negative ’avoid this and don’t go there’ to a more positive contemporary and conscious travel experience”, CEO Martim says. ”We want to help travellers find hotels and destinations that understand the importance of this issue and who want to take the modern approach instead of spraying the rooms with liters of pesticide over and over again.” The team is based in Maria 01, the biggest startup hub in the Nordics. Fun fact: There’s a hotel room simulator in the basement where the Valpas team continues to finetune the product with living bed bugs shipped in from various extermination locations around Finland.
Last week Valpas announced a 500,000k€ seed round led by Maki.vc with contributions from Reaktor Ventures and Icebreaker.vc. The investment will be directed at speeding up sales and scaling up the production. ”Going with Maki was a rather straightforward decision as Pirkka’s (Palomäki) hardware-related experience and expertise is undisputable. Previously we had to hustle and figure things out ourselves, but after joining forces we’ve already received a number of relevant production and supply partner introductions. We also greatly appreciate that the Maki team members have a strong entrepreneurial background,” Martim says.
Even though the story started with bed bugs, it has become clear that Valpas’ solution also works for other six-legged creatures. ”We’ve noticed that the overall level of cleanliness and hygiene has increased in the rooms with Valpas. Once we’ve conquered the bed bugs, our goal is to get our product into all sorts of exotic locations. A jungle resort in the middle of nowhere would be a cool experiment.”
Ready to make history with Valpas? Let’s!
