Omen AI, a startup founded by an 18-year-old high school dropout, has raised $31 million to solve a surprisingly messy problem in the AI boom: bacteria growing inside the liquid that cools data center chips. The Series A round was led by Nava Ventures, with participation from CRV, Vanderbilt University, Mann+Hummel, and others, bringing Omen’s total funding to $40 million since its 2024 founding.
The coolant contamination problem
As AI workloads drive demand for compute power, data center operators are squeezing more performance from every rack of GPUs. Liquid cooling, which uses a mixture of water and anti-bacterial additives, is increasingly common. But to run chips hotter, managers adjust the mix to include more water, which absorbs heat better — and that creates a breeding ground for bacteria.
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Contamination clogs cooling lines, forcing operators to flush the system for five to six hours. The cost of that downtime can reach millions of dollars. “You’re not risking huge amounts of downtime because you have no insight into what’s going on chemically,” Omen CEO and founder Zach Laberge told TechCrunch.
How the spectrometer works
Omen’s device is a tiny spectrometer that monitors fluid health in real time. It can spot bacterial growth before it becomes a problem, and also detect metal particles from pumps wearing out or silicon from degrading seals. That replaces the traditional process of extracting fluid samples and mailing them to a lab for analysis.
The key technical advances, Laberge said, are recent improvements in optical sensors and signal processing software. “Hardware is just cheap enough that it makes sense to play at scale, and then signal processing lets us make more sense out of the noise.”
From construction equipment to data centers
Laberge founded his first company in 2020 at age 14, raising $3 million to install sensors on construction equipment before dropping out of high school. After that startup shut down, he started Omen in 2024 focused on fluid systems for heavy machinery. Caterpillar dealerships were early customers — and Cat also supplies gas-powered turbines and generators for data centers.
About six months ago, Laberge said, “a lot of the dealerships were saying, ‘Hey, we’re starting to put sensors on our turbines, can you guys do anything on the building side of things?'” Omen discovered those buildings are full of fluid, from HVAC systems to chip cooling loops, and pivoted to focus on data centers.
Market and competition
Omen is working with a dozen data center customers, including TensorWave, which is building an AI compute cloud on AMD chips. “The fluid running through these massive systems is a critical variable that most of the industry is flying blind on,” TensorWave president Piotr Tomasik said in a statement.
The company is not alone in developing on-premises analytics. Pyxis, an established water-monitoring firm, rolled out its own data center coolant monitoring product earlier this month. But Nava Ventures partner Cory Rellas, who sits on Omen’s board, said the startup’s traction with large industrial customers validated its approach: “It’s rare to see such a young founder who has the respect of established, large corporations in a space that moves a bit more slowly.”
Frequently Asked Questions
What does Omen AI’s spectrometer do?
It continuously monitors the chemical health of liquid coolant in data center systems, detecting bacterial growth, metal wear, and seal degradation in real time.
Why is bacterial growth a problem in liquid cooling?
Higher water ratios in coolant improve heat absorption but encourage bacteria that clog the system, requiring a 5-6 hour flush that can cost millions in lost compute time.
Who led Omen AI’s $31 million Series A?
Nava Ventures led the round, with participation from CRV, Vanderbilt University, Mann+Hummel, Starhill Holdings, Hard Launch Capital, and individual investors from Bridgestone, GM, Johnson Controls, and TensorWave.
How old is Omen AI’s founder?
Zach Laberge is 18 years old. He dropped out of high school to start his first company at age 14 and founded Omen in 2024.
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