Atlanta Startup WattAir Wants To Pull Clean Water From Thin Air
ATLANTA, June 23 (Hypepotamus) - Growing up in Northern Ireland, Joseph Mooney had an “obsession for water.”
“Wherever there was water, I was there. The sea, the pool, even watching someone dig a well, I was fascinated by it,” he told Hypepotamus. That obsession turned into recreation and then racing, as Mooney rose in the ranks as a competitive swimmer.
Today, Mooney’s relationship to water looks different, as he works on growing WattAir, an Atlanta-based startup building scalable and affordable atmospheric water harvesting and air conditioning devices, converting water vapor from the air into usable liquid water.
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How WattAir Turns Air and Waste Heat Into Water
Alongside co-founder Bachir El Fil, Mooney is building a tech startup that turns wasted heat and air into clean water and smarter cooling. WattAir uses a special material system to “capture moisture from air and then release it as liquid water using heat,” Mooney explained to Hypepotamus.
“The simple way to think about it is: air contains water vapor, even in dry environments. Our system is designed to pull that vapor out of the air, use available heat to release it, and then condense it into usable water.”
WattAir’s systems can be installed as a modular unit that produces water on-site.
“In agriculture, that could mean supporting irrigation or water resilience at a farm site. In industrial settings, it could mean pairing with places where waste heat is already available,” he added.
For Mooney and team, WattAir is an opportunity to address the growing water shortage problem communities are facing.
“Water scarcity is accelerating, energy systems are under pressure, and solutions exist but are not reaching the people who need them most. I was in a position where I understood the science, had seen the problem up close, and had the right partner to build something meaningful. It felt like the moment where experience, timing, and responsibility all aligned. My vision is a world where no one fears scarcity. A world where access to clean water is reliable, local, and independent of geography or infrastructure. Where communities and industries can produce what they need sustainably and efficiently,” he added. “If we succeed, water becomes something people no longer have to think about or fight for. It simply exists as a given.”
Why WattAir Is Building Climate Tech in Atlanta
A graduate of the University of Limerick and Trinity College Dublin, Mooney has been building WattAir from Atlanta since 2025.
He told Hypepotamus that the city’s hard-tech and climate-tech scene makes it a “strong place” to build a company like WattAir.
“A lot of people think of climate tech as being concentrated in Boston, Silicon Valley, or parts of California, but Atlanta and the broader Southeast have a very different strength: this region is deeply connected to real industrial infrastructure. You have major activity across energy, logistics, manufacturing, agriculture, food and beverage, HVAC, data centers, and water-intensive industries. For a company like WattAir, that matters because we are not building software in isolation technology.”
Being anchored in the Georgia Tech ecosystem has also been important for the early-stage startup, giving the team access to engineering talent and research infrastructure.
“But what has surprised me most is the depth of support beyond the university. Atlanta has strong organizations like ATDC, a growing climate-tech community, and a very practical business culture. People here are willing to make introductions, test ideas, connect you with industrial partners, and help you move from lab concept to something that could actually be deployed. The community side has also been really important personally. As an Irish founder building in the U.S., I’ve found Atlanta to be incredibly welcoming. The Irish and international community here has been a real source of support, both personally and professionally. There is a strong culture of people helping each other, opening doors, and trying to make Atlanta a place where ambitious companies can be built," he told Hypepotamus. "I also think the Southeast is underrated as a place to scale climate and infrastructure companies. There are major industrial partners and customer channels here, and many of them are facing exactly the types of challenges WattAir is focused on: water resilience, energy efficiency, cooling demand, and infrastructure reliability. So for us, Atlanta is not just where the company started, it is a really strategic place to build from.”
Life Lessons To Business Lessons
Now a Research Engineer II at Georgia Tech, Mooney said it was his parents and his co-founder who shaped the values behind WattAir.
He told Hypepotamus that his father’s battle with cancer made him realize that “achievement on its own meant very little if it was not in service of something greater.”
“My parents became my compass. My father worked to help end homelessness in our community through creative financial programs. My mother worked as a nurse during the Irish Troubles, walking through military checkpoints and into dangerous situations because people needed her. They showed me what it means to live a life of purpose,” Mooney said, something that helped spark the origins of WattAir.
After meeting his co-founder, Mooney encountered a different perspective on water altogether.
“Through [Bachir], I saw a completely different reality. I had grown up surrounded by water. He had grown up where water scarcity shaped daily life. That contrast stayed with me. It made me realize that access to something as fundamental as water should not depend on where you are born. It is not just a challenge, it is a solvable problem.”
That mission has started attracting outside backing.
WattAir was recently one of two Georgia-based companies to receive a grant from Sage’s Impact Entrepreneurship Program.