Nyad AI, a software company focused on wastewater operations, today announced the launch of a tool that supports decision-making for treatment plant operators who work with complex systems using artificial intelligence.

The company also announced it raised $1.3 million in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round led by Boost VC. Additionally, Draper Associates, Halogen Ventures, Ollin Ventures, Apprentis, First Avenue Ventures and strategic angel Troy Wallwork, also participated in the round.

Wastewater treatment is a fundamental part of civilized living, it’s essential for protecting public health. The discovery of its necessity, especially in dense urban environments, helped curb the spread of disease and protect the environment by reducing toxic overload. The modern treatment of wastewater has become increasingly complex, with complementary systems that enable water reuse and recycling. That allows it to be returned for irrigation and industrial use while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and additional safeguards for the public.

This intersection between technology and wastewater highlights a broader trend: A growing number of data centers use treated wastewater to cool servers and reduce reliance on fresh drinking water. Tech companies such as Google LLC and Amazon Web Services Inc. use this approach in various locations to meet sustainability goals.

“Operators are the final line of defense for public health and the environment,” Nyad co-founder and Chief Executive Virginia Szepietowski said. “As experience retires out of the industry, we need tools that support operators in the moment when decisions matter most.”

Szepietowski founded Nyad in 2024 alongside her co-founder, Christopher Braithwaitein, after experiencing poor water quality during triathlon training in the U.K. Together, they established a headquarters at Innovation Depot in Birmingham, Alabama and identified customers in demand in the region.

Wastewater treatment is more than just putting water through numerous filters and hoping what comes out the other end is pure. It’s an industrial-scale process that cleans sewage through physical, biological and chemical processes, typically through three main stages. First, large debris is filtered out via screening, then organic debris is consumed by microorganisms and then the water is disinfected.

Wastewater operations as custodial zookeepers

The biological processes can be the most fraught, because this means maintaining a specialized ecosystem of organisms. Understanding how these colonies of creatures operate means technicians must spend hours at microscopes looking at samples, tracking population counts within biological systems and identifying organisms to understand the delicate network they form.

Imagine a wastewater treatment tank is similar to a forest, a desert or an ocean. Teeming in the tank is a vibrant ecosystem doing work, just like fish, coral, sharks, kelp and other large-scale animals and plants do; except these are bacteria and tiny animals. Similarly, if their populations go out of balance, they stop doing their job effectively.

With Nyad, the operations team can capture photos from slides or test tubes and upload them for instant scanning. A specialized AI copilot named Nymph then analyzes the images to identify and quantify the bacteria, algae, amoebae, flagellates, ciliates, rotifers and nematodes present.

By identifying these bio-indicators in real-time, the system provides the biological insights needed to troubleshoot process upsets, maintain regulatory compliance and optimize plant efficiency.

To dive a little into the microbiology, Nymph could flag a sudden spike in flagellates — a microorganism with a long, hair-like appendage it uses to move. This is an early warning of organic overloading, allowing technicians to pump more air into the tanks (through aeration) or reduce the amount of organic waste being poured into the tank (as the current bacteria population cannot consume more).

Nymph can also work with pictures of tank surfaces to analyze water coloration, algae mats, foam, turbulence and other indicators.

“The team is building a category-defining tool at the intersection of AI and wastewater with a clear vision for where the market is headed,” Halogen Ventures founder Jesse Draper said. “We see their software as not only a game-changer, but soon to be a necessity for wastewater everywhere.”

With the new funding in hand, the company said it will be bolstering its team for the road ahead, aiming to build on its customer base and expand its AI product as it grows across the United States.

Images: SiliconANGLE/Microsoft Designer, Nyad AI