How Airsup works
The honest version. What we source, how we vet factories, what's free, what you pay for, and where our responsibility ends. No inflated promises — read this before you pay anything.
Money-back guarantee
Guarantee No suppliers found, full refund
If we don't connect you with at least one vetted supplier who accepts your project, you get your money back in full. You only keep paying us if we actually deliver a real, matching factory contact — otherwise the plan fee is refunded, no questions asked.
This is the core promise behind every paid plan and the supplier research in the workspace. We carry the risk of the match, not you.
How fast you hear back
Once you submit a project, Supi reaches out to the matched factories on your behalf. We usually connect you with the right suppliers within 24 hours — sometimes faster, sometimes longer when a project is highly specialised (deep-tech hardware, custom optics, regulated products) and the right factory takes more outreach to confirm.
When a supplier accepts, you get their direct WhatsApp contact and an English-speaking person who can move the project forward. From there, negotiation, samples, and orders happen directly between you and the factory.
Free research vs paid plans
Free research
Launch the workspace and you can run AI supplier research for free. For free research we search the open, public networks — the same places a good sourcing agent would start:
Great for discovery and price-checking. You still verify the factory yourself.
Paid plans
Our paid tiers are for serious manufacturing. You get our vetted, often exclusive suppliers — factories we work with through personal connections. Many are established enough that they no longer need to list on Alibaba or Global Sources to find customers, so you won't find them by searching yourself.
We can't guarantee a given supplier is nowhere public — but these are real factories vetted in person, reached through relationships, not directory listings.
What we source
Airsup is built first for deep tech and hardware — but our vetted network covers far more. We hold at least 3 vetted suppliers per category so there's always a real choice and a fast match.
Suppliers across China (Shenzhen, Guangdong, Shanghai), the US, Germany, India, Turkey and more. Don't see your category? Ask Supi — the network keeps growing.
How we vet suppliers
Every supplier on a paid plan is checked in person before we put them in front of you. We look for:
- In-person lean check. We visit the floor — good labour conditions, lean inventory, and a nearby supplier network so sub-components don't bottleneck the project.
- Financial health. We confirm the factory isn't on the edge — healthy cash flow, so it won't disappear mid-order.
- On-time delivery. A track record of delivering projects on time over the last year.
- Clean rooms. Where the product needs it (electronics, optics, medical), we verify proper clean-room conditions.
- Good machinery. Real production equipment — SMT lines, CNC, molding — not a trading company reselling someone else's output.
No hidden factory markup
You pay the manufacturer directly. Airsup does not add a margin to your unit price, hide factory quotes, or take a commission on your order. Our plan fee is the only thing you pay us.
That's the difference from a traditional sourcing agent, who is paid a percentage of your order and has an incentive to push their preferred factory. We're paid the same whether your unit cost is high or low — so we optimise for the right factory, not the most profitable one.
Who our suppliers build for
The factories in our network manufacture and produce for established brands and studios, including:
Sony · Panasonic · Warner Music Group · JBL · Zaha Hadid Architects · Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF) · Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) · Foster + Partners
These are clients of suppliers in our network, shown to indicate factory calibre. It does not imply endorsement of Airsup by these companies.
Our honest limits
So there are no surprises and nothing to "see through":
- Airsup is a matching platform, not a manufacturer or a trading company. We find and contact factories for you; we don't make the product.
- Negotiation, samples, orders, payment, and shipping happen directly between you and the factory. We can introduce vetted shipping and certification partners, but the contract is yours.
- If we don't deliver a matching supplier who accepts your project, you don't pay — see the money-back guarantee.
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