Category: In Ovo

In Ovo raised EUR 34M to end male chick culling

Wil

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.

In Ovo founders Wouter and Wil

Millions invested in Leiden method of determining sex of chicks before hatching

Wil

Discovering whether a chick is male or female while it is still in the egg. Leiden biotech company In Ovo, a spin-off of Leiden University, has been given an investment of several million euros to further develop its unique test method. The founders – both Leiden alumni – Wouter Bruins and Wil Stutterheim are now set to market their successful prototype.

The major part of the investment of several millions of euros comes from Evonik, originally a German chemicals company, and the venture capital company Visvires New Protein. Rabobank Leiden-Katwijk has also contributed what is known as a Subordinated Innovation Investment. Leiden University, which has been closely involved with the company from its outset, is also investing in In Ovo’s further development. The company is a spin off of the Leiden Institute of Biology and now works closely with the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR). Read More

One step closer to preventing mass death of roosters

Wil

The Dutch biotech start-up In Ovo is the first company to develop a large-scale solution for determining the sex of a chick while it is still in the egg. This fast and cheap technique can be applied mechanically at hatcheries, which was not possible before.

In Ovo’s innovation brings us one step closer to preventing the mass death of day-old male chicks. There are other techniques for determining the sex of a chick before it has hatched, such as measuring the level of estrogen in the egg. But this method takes four hours and it is very expensive, which makes it unsuitable for use in hatcheries. In Ovo’s technology now makes this possible. Read More

Herman Wijffels Innovatieprijs 2012 - In Ovo - publieksprijs

In Ovo genomineerd voor de Herman Wijffels Innovatieprijs 2012

Wil

In Ovo is genomineerd voor de Herman Wijffels Innovatieprijs 2012! Toen we dit hoorden waren we zeer verrast en dolblij, want er zijn maar liefst 577 inzendingen ontvangen en wij behoren tot de laatste tien. Onze inzending betreft onze diervriendelijk en duurzame innovatie voor de pluimveeindustrie: In Ovo ontwikkelt een test waarmee het geslacht van kuikens al in het ei bepaald kan worden. Hiermee kan voorkomen worden dat alleen al in Nederland 45 miljoen kuikens op de dag van uitkomen gedood worden. Dit zijn de haantjes, zullen nooit eieren leggen en zijn dan ook nutteloos voor de eiproductie.

Nu worden de kuikens direct na uitkomen handmatig gesorteerd op geslacht. Dit proces levert de kuikens veel stress op. Met de test van In Ovo kan in de toekomst het geslacht van een kuiken al in het ei bepaald worden. Hiermee wordt de diervriendelijkheid van broederijen aanzienlijk verhoogd, aangezien er geen kuikens meer gedood hoeven te worden. Read More

Graduated

Wil

Finally. It took me about ten years to finish my studies, but it has happened: I graduated last April. Yes, ten years is a pretty long time, but I don’t regret a single moment. Why? Because studying is only one part of being a student. There’s a whole world outside of the university that you simply can’t ignore. I’m pretty sure I’ve learned at least as much studying biomedical subjects as exploring new opportunities while taking on all sorts of extra curricular activities. The trick is to do stuff and have fun!

I did my last internship at the startup in which I’m currently a partner. During these five months I learned a great deal about collecting market information and doing a market analysis. Together with my fellow founder, we visited a lot of people to build a strong network, acquire the required knowledge about companies in the poultry industry and to look for big piles of money to get our research started.

Currently we have a pretty strong position and are about to file for a patent. The fact that we were/are student-entrepreneurs worked in our advantage. I’m confident that we will be successful and yes, that does require a hell of a lot of work.