Start-up raises £1.5m for lower-cost fish farm oxygen generator

Nernst Electric, an Irish start-up developing lower cost on-site oxygen generation for fish farms, has raised a US $2 million (£1.5m / €1.75m) seed investment from Hatch Blue’s Blue Revolution Fund.

Fish farms rely on a continuous, large-volume supply of oxygen to keep fish healthy and growing. Today, most operations source it via trucked liquid oxygen from centralised facilities or on-site PSA (pressure swing adsorption) / VSA (vacuum swing adsorption) generators – costly and logistically complex arrangements, particularly for remote coastal locations.

Early stage investor Hatch Blue said Nernst Electric changes this by generating high-purity oxygen( >99%) directly at the farm using ceramic membranes to separate it from ambient air. This technology gives fish farms a reliable supply at dramatically lower cost and higher energy efficiency, and without the supply chain dependency or operational burdens of conventional methods.

A multi-use technology

The transformational potential of Nernst’s technology extends far beyond aquaculture, said Hatch Blue. Heavy industries such as mining, steel manufacturing, and the energy sector all depend on high-volume oxygen as a critical input, and face the same supply constraints at massive industrial scale.

“For decades, the limitations of conventional on-site oxygen generation have held back productivity across industries including aquaculture, mining, metallurgy, and steelmaking,” said Nernst Electric chief executive Nick Farandos, an electrochemical engineer.

“Our breakthrough reactor technology removes those barriers, enabling the most efficient oxygen production at any scale with near-zero maintenance and the industry’s lowest operating costs.”

Last year, the company's engineering director, Chris Matson, told Hatch Blue's The Fish Site: “Nick and I founded Nernst to focus on high-temperature ceramic electrochemical technology, and particularly how to manufacture it cost-effectively. The technology is highly efficient, but it’s traditionally been too expensive. Over the past two years we’ve developed a 3D-printing process to make it commercially viable." 

Carsten Krome, managing partner and co-founder of Hatch Blue, said: “Aquaculture is generating commercially attractive innovation at pace, and the sector’s own fundamentals are strong. Much of that innovation also has reach well beyond it. Nernst is a clear example: the platform that solves critical oxygen supply for fish farms has industrial-scale application across heavy industry. That is exactly what gives the Blue Revolution Fund the conviction to back it.”

Fast progress

Nernst Electric, based in Bray, just south of Dublin, first joined the Hatch Blue portfolio in July 2025, receiving pre-seed funding from Hatch Accelerator Fund II and joining Hatch Blue’s accelerator programme. The company later participated in an Aquatech Innovation Studio organised jointly with Ireland’s seafood development agency BIM (Bord Iascaigh Mhara).

“Since Nernst joined our Accelerator Fund, their progress has been fast and convincing. The team came in with a manufacturing concept and have built it into a working system ready for its first aquaculture deployment,” said Caitriona Kelleher, managing director of early stage investments at Hatch Blue.

Efficient and sustainable

BIM chief executive Richard Donnelly said today’s announcement shows the continued investor appetite for financing Irish aquatech, and the growing recognition that aquaculture can meet rising global demands for sustainable and nutritious food.

“Efficiency and sustainability are the key components of Nernst technologies – a key concern for aquaculture operators the world over, who want to lower costs and emissions,” added Donnelly.

The seed capital will fund the construction of a demonstration unit that will validate the system’s performance in a real farming environment, the stepping stone to commercial customer trials and a Series A capital raiiase to scale across the aquaculture sector.