As AI chips become more powerful (and hotter), data centers are turning to liquid instead of air to cool servers.

For newer AI systems, fans alone cannot remove enough heat. That change has created a new problem: preventing the coolant from degrading or becoming contaminated. Omen AI announced a $31 million funding round in June to address this issue.

Data centers often send coolant samples to laboratories to check the health of their systems and then wait days for the results. Omen sensors continuously analyze the coolant in real time to detect contamination, metal particles, bacteria and other signs of degradation.

Omen founder and CEO Zach Laberge, 20, compared it to a “blood test.” The startup aims to detect problems early so that operators don’t have to shut down clusters of AI chips and remove faulty coolant, a process that can cost millions in lost computing time, he said.

Laberge founded the company in 2024, initially to build sensors for excavators in the construction industry. After about a year, it realized its fluid monitoring technology was “100 times more valuable to data centers.”

Nava Ventures led the funding round, with participation from CRV, former Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, Mann+Hummel and executives from AI cloud startup TensorWave, a client. Omen has raised $41.5 million to date.

The company sells permanent sensors and wearable devices through subscriptions with prices per megawatt. It has more than a dozen customers, Laberge said, most of which are neoclouds or specialized AI cloud providers. It’s also starting to work with larger cloud companies.

In addition to monitoring coolant in data centers, Omen devices also analyze fluids in industrial machines.

Laberge said he’s been building businesses since he was a kid in Nova Scotia, from selling smartwatches to running a dog biscuit business and a tool rental platform.

Omen has 30 employees in San Francisco, most of whom dropped out of college, Laberge said. He added that he hires for skills rather than formal credentials and that Omen will use the funds to grow its engineering team and scale manufacturing.

Here’s a look at the presentation Omen AI used to raise its $31 million Series A round. The presentation has been written so that it can be shared publicly.