November 8, 2023

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Whether organic, free-range, or cage-free, the process remains the same. Since male chicks don’t lay eggs, and do not quickly grow like hens do making it economically unsound to attempt to fatten them, each year up to 6.5 billion male chicks are identified and manually sorted directly after hatching to be culled by shredding machines, or suffocated by nitrogen or argon gas. 

More than five years ago, United Egg Producers, a U.S.-based co-op that accounts for more than 90 percent of all commercial eggs in the country, pledged to eliminate the practice of chick culling by 2020, or at the time that an “economically feasible” technology was commercially available to enable the move. Likewise, countries have begun making the practice illegal. Germany has outlawed chick culling since January 2022, making it one of the first in Europe to do so. France, Austria, Luxembourg, and Italy have also since enacted national bans. 

But the hurdle was scale – with more than 100 billion eggs being produced every year in the U.S. alone, such technology able to keep pace was not even close to a reality.

Founded in 2013 and spun-off from Leiden University, Dutch Agtech startup In Ovo was launched with the goal of developing cutting-edge solutions that boost animal welfare and sustainability within the poultry sector. 

In March 2022 the company announced it had closed on a EUR34 million (US$37.8 million) Series B led by impact investor European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) with participation from ABN AMRO.

And most recently, has entered into a €40 million (US$42.8 million) loan agreement with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to advance the expansion of Ella® – the company’s fast and accurate platform that determines the sex of hatching eggs at an early stage, giving hatcheries the ability to exclusively hatch female chicks and reducing the usage of valuable resources for greater overall sustainability. In 2020 In Ovo’s Ella machine achieved the major benchmark of producing the world’s first “girls only” chicks.

“We are super excited and humbled to be receiving this prestigious and fantastic support from the EIB,” said Wouter Bruins, founder, In Ovo. “It will permit us to further develop our technology pipeline and become a worldwide player, positively impacting animals throughout the food production channel.” 

Stella Kyriakides, commissioner for Health and Food Safety, added, “Ensuring that Europe’s animal welfare standards are amongst the highest in the world is a priority for us. With this technology, we will be avoiding the systematic killing of millions of male chicks throughout the European Union. This is a major step in our work to strengthen animal welfare standards in our Union.” 

Europe Taking the Lead

Pressure to eliminate culling in the industry has been mounting for years on multiple fronts – from consumers, activists, retailers, regulators, NGOs, and even the producers themselves. And although a rather niche segment within agtech, technologies that will potentially eliminate the culling of male chicks have been gaining traction, capital, and news attention.

Just last month, another European startup – Germany-based Orbem –  closed on a EUR 30 million Series A led by venture investor 83North in support of its platform that handles the roles traditionally performed by technicians and radiologists, eliminating the need for human intervention in the MRI imaging, making the process faster and several hundreds more times more cost effective. 

This fundraising followed upon the company’s successful launch of its product Orbem Genus Focus for in-ovo sexing, a service that can sex an egg through an entirely contactless and non-invasive process at a rate of one egg per second. 

And although COVID-19 has slowed progress and adoption has dragged in the U.S. market, hopefully these funding rounds will help what has begun to spread across Europe to start to penetrate new markets.

For In Ovo, aside from accelerating Ella, this loan from EIB will be used to further develop Eve – the company’s innovative sensor platform that optimizes the entire hatching process, allowing for hatcheries to produce more and healthier chicks for even greater overall animal welfare.

The company stated it is also actively engaged in a pipeline of new innovations dedicated to the continual improvement of sustainability in the wider poultry sector. 

“In Ovo’s technology represents a significant leap forward in terms of animal welfare and sustainability within the poultry sector, aligning seamlessly with the overarching priorities of EIB,” said Kris Peeters, vice-president, EIB. 

“We have consistently supported critical innovations stemming from the Netherlands in recent years, and we intend to persist in doing so, particularly in the case of environmentally significant technologies.”

~ Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor in chief with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Unconventional Ag. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.

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