In Ovo develops an automated in-ovo sexing platform called Ella that extracts tiny amounts of allantoic fluid from hatching eggs to detect gender biomarkers and enable hatcheries to discard male eggs before a fetus develops. The company also develops Eve, a sensor platform intended to optimize the hatching process and improve chick health. In Ovo currently has machines operating in the Netherlands and Belgium and aims to install machines worldwide. The business addresses an industry problem in which an estimated 6.5 billion male chicks are culled annually. Recent regulatory shifts in Europe (Germany, France, Luxembourg bans and Italy’s upcoming ban) increase demand for alternatives to post-hatch culling. The company says the funding will be used to further develop Ella and other innovations to improve animal welfare and scale deployment. The InvestEU program backs the European Investment Bank’s financing for the project. In Ovo develops an automated in-egg gender-testing process that extracts a small sample of allantoic fluid and analyzes it by mass spectrometry for three biomarkers to determine egg sex before hatching. The technology is based on existing vaccination techniques used in the broiler industry, adapted to sample and reseal eggs. On laboratory scale the company currently analyzes one egg per second and expects through R&D to accelerate analysis to a few microseconds per egg. In Ovo plans to work with German and Dutch partners over the next four years to develop a prototype capable of sorting and handling large quantities of eggs, and aims for a first product launch in 2020. Financially, the company has completed a Series A that it describes as “several million euros” while declining to disclose an exact amount. The company was launched in 2013 as a spinoff from Leiden University.

Total raised

$42M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Debt Financing

Latest activity

Nov 2023