BATON ROUGE — Tigeraire, a tech startup born in New Orleans and based in Baton Rouge, has announced that General Catalyst, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm behind Venmo, Stripe, Airbnb and TikTok, has signed as its lead investor.
Tigeraire’s first product, the Cyclone, consists of dual blowers designed to fit between the padding inside a football helmet and designed to provide a cooler, more comfortable playing environment. The company’s portfolio of products is set to grow over the next year into other sports as well as industrial hard hats and ballistic helmets.
“We’re honored to be the first tech startup in the history of Louisiana to secure seed round funding from a global top 50 venture capital firm,” said founder and CEO Jack Karavich. “There’s a rich entrepreneurial spirit and wealth of talent in our state, so we couldn’t be more excited about what the future holds as we expand and create more jobs in partnership with the state of Louisiana.”
Tigeraire created the Cyclone in collaboration with Louisiana State University to battle extreme heat and humidity – a hallmark of south Louisiana. The company said the University of Alabama and Texas A&M University are now clients.
To learn more, visit Tigeraire.com or follow @Tigeraire on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.