March 2, 2022

By Lynda Kiernan-Stone, Global AgInvesting Media

Founded in 2013 and spun-off from Leiden University, Dutch Agtech startup In Ovo was launched for the purpose of ending the culling of male chicks.

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. 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.

However, In Ovo has diligently been working on a solution to this issue, and has announced the close of a EUR34 million (US$37.8 million) Series B led by impact investor European Circular Bioeconomy Fund (ECBF) with participation from ABN AMRO. Follow-on investments from existing shareholders Evonik and VisVires New Protein were also included, along with additional investment from technology partner Demcon, and support from Libertatis Ergo Holding of Leiden University. 

Peter Nieuwenhuizen, founding partner ECBF, commented, “We are delighted to join the founders and current investors of In Ovo on their journey. Poultry and egg farming are essential for the supply of protein to feed the world, and solving the issue of male chick culling will be transformational for the sector.”

He continued, “We believe that In Ovo can be a force for good, not just by eliminating male chick culling but also by introducing additional practices that improve animal health & wellbeing, and increase resource efficiency.”

The capital from this round will be used to accelerate the international growth and scale up for In Ovo’s high-throughput screening machine, Ella, that can identify the gender of eggs before they hatch, giving hatcheries an economical and industrial scale solution that will advance global animal welfare and sustainability of the poultry industry. 

“Getting Ella from an idea to a market ready technology has been a fantastic journey, one that we couldn’t have made without the help of our initial investors,” said In Ovo Co-founder Wouter Bruins. “We can’t wait to start the next chapter in our mission and are super-excited to be joined in this by ECBF, ABN AMRO and Demcon. We are looking forward to making a large, positive impact in the food industry, together with our launching customers and our growing team of driven people.”

The timing of this funding is pivotal. 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.

In response, countries have begun to make the practice illegal, beginning with France and Germany. In France, a new law decreed that all hatcheries must have installed, or have on order, gender testing machinery by January 1, 2022, with the machinery installed within the year. Over the span of two years working in tandem with Germany, the determination was that the best technology to accomplish this at an industrial scale was sexage en oeuf, or gender within the egg. 

In Ovo stated that it is already working with early adoptions, and that this fresh capital will enable the company to offer its Ella solution in markets across the EU and beyond.

Fred Bos, managing director at ABN AMRO, said, “As a financial partner of In Ovo, ABN AMRO is delighted to finance this initiative. We aim to provide a solid financial basis for companies that have the potential to accelerate the transition towards a sustainable, animal friendly society. This initiative is a good example that fits with this ambition. Furthermore, the product-as-a-service proposition is a really innovative element that contributes to a more circular economy, a key theme at ABN AMRO.”

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

Rob Mayfield, managing director Libertatis Ergo Holding, Leiden University, noted, “We are thrilled that Wil, Wouter, and the whole In Ovo team have reached this exciting milestone in their ambitious journey from a University startup, to an international scaleup, with enormous impact potential on both animal welfare as well as emission reduction.”

“Our mission is to create positive social impact through our core values of entrepreneurship, development and collaboration by developing and producing high technology solutions,” added Dennis Schipper, CEO, Demcon. “This innovation of In Ovo really makes an impact on society. We are delighted to have been able to act as developer, producer and investor in this next round.”

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– Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor 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 Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.