Omen AI has raised $31 million in a Series A round led by Nava Ventures, with participation from CRV, Vanderbilt University, Mann+Hummel, Starhill Holdings, and Hard Launch Capital, alongside personal investments from executives at Bridgestone, GM, Johnson Controls, and TensorWave. The company has raised $40 million in total since its founding in 2024.
The startup makes a miniaturised spectrometer that monitors the chemical composition of liquid cooling fluid in real time, detecting bacterial growth, pump wear, and seal degradation before they cause costly outages. As AI workloads push data centre chips to run hotter, operators are adjusting cooling fluid formulations to use more water, which improves heat absorption but accelerates bacterial contamination. Flushing an affected rack can take five to six hours and cost millions of dollars in downtime.
Omen was founded by Zach Laberge, who launched his first company at 14 and later pivoted from monitoring fluid systems in construction equipment to data centre infrastructure after Caterpillar dealerships began requesting sensor solutions for their turbines and generators supplying on-premises power to AI facilities.
The company is currently working with a dozen data centre customers, including TensorWave, which operates an AI compute cloud built on AMD chips. Cory Rellas, partner at Nava Ventures and Omen board member, said customer validation came quickly through introductions with large operators, an unusual outcome for a founder of Laberge’s age operating in an industry that typically moves slowly.
