This Irish Startup Just Raised $2M to Solve a Critical Problem for Fish Farms and Heavy Industry

Jan de Vries · 2026-07-23

Oxygen is a surprisingly big deal for fish farms. Without a steady, high-volume supply, fish simply can't thrive. Most farms rely on trucking in liquid oxygen or running expensive on-site generators. It's clunky, costly, and a logistical nightmare, especially for remote coastal sites. But Nernst Electric, an Irish startup, just landed a $2 million Seed investment from Hatch Blue's Blue Revolution Fund to change that. Here's the story of how they're quietly building something that could reshape not just aquaculture, but heavy industry too. ### The Problem: Oxygen Supply Chains Are Broken Fish farms need a continuous flow of oxygen to keep their stock healthy and growing. For most operations, that means either trucked liquid oxygen from centralized plants or on-site PSA/VSA generators. Both options come with serious drawbacks. Trucking is expensive and unreliable in bad weather. Generators are energy-hungry and need constant maintenance. These limitations have held back productivity for decades, not just in aquaculture but across mining, metallurgy, and steelmaking. It's a bottleneck that's been accepted as normal. ### Nernst's Approach: Ceramic Membranes That Pull Oxygen from Air Founded in 2023 by Nick Farandos and Chris Matson, Nernst Electric combines expertise in solid oxide electrochemistry, advanced additive manufacturing, and industrial gas deployment. Their breakthrough? A reactor that uses ceramic membranes to separate high-purity oxygen (over 99%) directly from ambient air. This isn't just a tweak on existing tech. It's a fundamental shift. The units are designed to operate with near-zero maintenance and the lowest operating costs in the industry. For fish farms, that means a reliable oxygen supply without the supply chain headaches or energy bills. ### From Accelerator to Seed Round: A Fast Trajectory Nernst first caught Hatch Blue's attention in July 2025, joining their accelerator program and receiving pre-Seed funding from Hatch Accelerator Fund II. The progress since then has been rapid. As Caitriona Kelleher, Managing Director of Early Stage Investments at Hatch Blue, put it: "The team came in with a manufacturing concept and have built it into a working system ready for its first aquaculture deployment." That kind of technical execution is what convinced the Blue Revolution Fund to step in with this $2 million Seed investment. ### Beyond Fish Farms: Heavy Industry Applications Here's where it gets really interesting. Nernst's technology isn't limited to aquaculture. Heavy industries like mining, steel manufacturing, and energy production also rely on massive volumes of oxygen. They face the same supply constraints, just at a much larger scale. "The platform that solves critical oxygen supply for fish farms has industrial-scale application across heavy industry," said Carsten Krome, Managing Partner and co-founder of Hatch Blue. That's exactly why the fund has conviction in backing it. ### What the Funding Will Do Nernst is currently building its first operational pilot-scale unit to test the technology under real-world conditions. This new capital will go toward completing that demonstration unit. A successful trial in a real farming environment will be a crucial step toward commercial customer trials and eventually a Series A funding round. ### The Bottom Line Nernst Electric is a great example of how innovation in one sector can ripple outward. By solving a critical problem for fish farms, they've built a platform that could transform multiple industries. The $2 million Seed round is a bet on that potential, and the early signs are promising.