A founder’s idea, born from the haze

Nine years after Gush began with an audacious question—"Can a wall actively improve the environment around it?”—the Singapore company is entering a different phase.  This transition is being led by two entrepreneurs from different generations and with complementary strengths: Lester Leong, Gush’s original founder and CEO, and Paul Lim, the investor-turned-co-founder who is now Executive Chairman. Leong built the technology and early market conviction. Lim brought the operating discipline, commercial network and capital-markets experience to help convert a promising start-up into a company designed for scale. Gush’s origin goes back to Singapore’s severe haze episode in 2015. Leong and members of the founding team suffered from respiratory sensitivities and were frustrated by conventional air purifiers: bulky appliances that consumed electricity and required filters to be replaced. Their insight was simple but powerful. In any room, the walls and ceiling form the largest available...