Dutch AgTech scale-up In Ovo closes EUR 34M fund raise to accelerate its international growth and scale-up plans. The new funding is provided by impact investor ECBF and ABN AMRO and includes follow-on investments from existing shareholders Evonik and VisVires New Protein, as well as an additional investment from technology partner Demcon. This round is further supported by Libertatis Ergo Holding of Leiden University.
In Ovo, a spin-off from Leiden University, was founded in 2013 with a single purpose:to end the mass culling of chicks. Every year, 6.5 billion male chicks are culled in the worldwide poultry industry, because the males do not lay eggs. Traditionally, chicks are manually sorted by gender right after hatching and the male chicks are killed. In Ovo has developed a high-throughput screening machine called Ella®, which can identify the gender of eggs before they hatch. This enables hatcheries to only hatch females, eliminating the need for culling the males on an economic and truly industrial scale. Ella marks a huge step forward in animal welfare and the sustainability of the poultry industry.
Scaling up
This growth funding for In Ovo comes at a pivotal moment in the market. An increasing number of countries are making the culling of chicks illegal, whilst in many other countries pressure is mounting from customers, retailers, regulators and NGOs and the industry itself. In Ovo is already working with early adopters and this new funding will enable In Ovo to offer its Ella solution in markets across Europe and beyond.
Co-founder Wouter Bruins: “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. 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 large positive impact in the food industry, together with our launching customers and our growing team of driven people.”
Peter Nieuwenhuizen, Founding Partner ECBF: “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. 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.”
About In Ovo
In Ovo is a Dutch AgTech scaleup based in Leiden, that develops high-tech solutions to improve animal welfare and sustainability in the poultry sector. After nearly ten years of development, In Ovo’s Ella machine produced the first ‘cull-free chicks’ in Q4, 2020. Since then, a highly improved Ella machine has been developed with an increased capacity to match modern hatcheries’ high production volumes. Next to Ella, In Ovo has a pipeline of other innovations to further increase its impact. Visit inovo.nl or follow on LinkedIn.
