Nyad

Nyad is a specialized technology firm addressing the wastewater treatment sector. The company was founded in 2024 by Virginia Szepietowski and Christopher Braithwaite and is headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama. Nyad is a portfolio company of accelerators like gener8tor and Techstars, having secured initial funding of $120,000.

The company's core business revolves around providing an AI-powered microbiology co-pilot for industrial wastewater treatment facilities that use the activated sludge process. This software-based solution is designed to give operators critical visibility into the biological processes that drive waste treatment, which are often considered a 'black-box'. By leveraging computer vision and machine learning, the platform identifies and analyzes microbes in real-time. This allows treatment operators to get crucial data in minutes, a significant improvement over traditional methods that can take hours or days. The primary clients are industrial wastewater treatment plants aiming to enhance operational efficiency.

Nyad's product is a pure software solution, which means it requires no hardware integration or plant downtime to implement. The key benefits for its clients include the ability to maintain peak plant performance, reduce spending on chemicals, and preemptively manage process upsets. By providing a biology-first approach enhanced with artificial intelligence, the platform helps transform wastewater into a sustainable water resource, enabling businesses to lower their environmental impact while maintaining profitability. The business model focuses on making water treatment smarter and more cost-effective, ultimately delivering cleaner effluent water.

Keywords: wastewater treatment, AI microbiology, industrial wastewater, microbial analysis, activated sludge process, computer vision, machine learning, water technology, CleanTech, effluent treatment, biological treatment, process optimization, environmental services, water management, microbial monitoring, predictive analytics, plant performance, chemical reduction, sustainable water, real-time data