The EIB loan
The European Investment Bank (EIB) is the long-term lending institution of the European Union, and it has made a significant commitment to In Ovo’s mission. The €40 million loan agreement, spanning the period from 2023 to 2026, is facilitated with the support of the InvestEU program.
“In Ovo’s technology means an improvement in the field of animal welfare and sustainability of the poultry sector, which is a good match with the EIB’s overall priorities.” commented EIB Vice-President Kris Peeters.
Commissioner for the Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, said: “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.”
Press party at the hatchery
As you probably can imagine, we’ve celebrated this new investment. We’ve organised a document signing event at a hatchery in The Netherlands, where we are running two lines of our Ella machine.
EIB’s vice president Kris Peeters was there to share a word with the group, consisting of journalists, photographers and others involved in the process. In Ovo’s co-founder Wouter and a spokesperson from the European Commission shared a short speech before taking a tour around Ella. Oh, and don’t forget about the tompouces that we had (very classic Dutch cakes)!
The new loan made it to the Dutch news and multiple Dutch and international newspapers. This support from the prestigious institution is a testament to In Ovo’s potential for becoming a worldwide player and improve animal welfare on a massive scale.
But how will we do that?
Meet Ella®
She’s our flagship product. Our high-throughput screening machine that can identify the sex of eggs at an early stage. This eliminates the need to cull male chicks shortly after hatching, which is a global animal welfare that adds up to 6.5 billion male chicks per year.
With Ella, hatcheries not only raise their animal welfare standards but also significantly reduce their CO2 emissions, making the poultry industry more sustainable on multiple aspects in one go.
With the backing of the EIB’s substantial investment, we can focus on expanding globally and improving animal welfare worldwide. Little by little, our beloved Ella is leaving its nest and is landing at hatcheries across the globe.
Eve: where innovation continues
In Ovo’s commitment to innovation doesn’t stop with Ella. We can now accelerate the development of the sensor and software platform called Eve.
This technology is designed to improve animal welfare by optimising different aspects of the hatching process. By optimising this critical stage of a chick’s life, Eve allows hatcheries to hatch more and healthier chicks. This improves animal welfare on a massive scale and allows hatcheries to make extra profits while at it.
In the pipeline
In Ovo isn’t just about egg sexing. The EIB’s €40 million loan also allows us to develop of a pipeline of further innovations, aimed at continuously improving animal welfare and sustainability within the poultry industry. Stay tuned for more information on this, we can’t tell anything yet.
A bright future ahead
In Ovo’s partnership with the EIB sets the stage for great innovations within the poultry industry. With the expansion and enhancement of our Ella technology, the further development of the innovative Eve platform and a continuous commitment to further advancements, we are paving the way for a more sustainable and animal-friendly poultry sector.
We’ve said it before. We are on a mission to improve animal welfare in the poultry sector, chick by chick. With our groundbreaking scientific and technological innovations, we aim to improve the lives of 5.000.000.000 animals per year by 2030.
And we just got one step closer.
