Orbem and the EIC Accelerator: MRI That Sexes Eggs in a Second

Male chicks of laying breeds never lay eggs, and hatcheries have long killed them on their first day. Germany, France and Austria have banned the practice. Hatcheries in those countries now have to find out the sex of the embryo before it hatches. Orbem, a Munich spin-off from the Technical University of Munich, does it by putting every egg through a magnetic resonance scanner and letting software read the image.

The European Innovation Council granted €2,450,876 towards an 18-month, €3.51 million project to scale the system. Orbem has since raised €85.5 million from investors, opened in the United States and says it is profitable. On its own reported figures, the EIC backed a company that took off. Those figures are also, so far, almost the only ones available.

Where Orbem Stands Today

In January 2026 Orbem announced a €55.5 million Series B led by the Dutch fund Innovation Industries, with Supernova Invest, General Catalyst and its Series A lead 83North; FYB Financial Yearbook reported the same round. The company said it had scanned more than 170 million eggs, operated in five European countries and was "already profitable". It plans to use the money to enter the US market, to apply its scanners to fruit and vegetables, and to develop healthcare uses of what it calls its biological dataset.

The US push is under way. In July 2026 AgFunderNews reported that the first US installation was operating, a second was expected in August and a third was scheduled for 2027. The hatchery was not named. The system processes up to 24,000 eggs an hour, according to the report, and adds about one cent to the retail price of an egg.

The Technology: An MRI Scan for Every Egg

Rival in-ovo sexing methods, as AgFunderNews described them in 2023, either sample fluid from inside the egg (Respeggt, In Ovo) or use hyperspectral imaging that detects feather colour and works in brown-egg breeds (Agri Advanced Technologies). Orbem's system is contactless: an MRI sensor images the egg and an AI model classifies the embryo, which the company says takes less than one second per egg. The same scan can also tell fertile from infertile eggs, which is the basis of its second product.

What the EIC Project Promised, and What CORDIS Shows

The project aimed to identify fertilisation status, embryo sex and inner egg quality without opening the egg, to cut waste and end the culling of male chicks. The CORDIS report says Orbem scanned "more than 25 Million eggs" during the project, installed its technology in three hatcheries after the legal changes in France and Germany, and saved "more than 10 Million of male chicks from being culled".

1. Commercial deployment in hatcheriesDeliveredThree hatcheries during the project; five European countries by 2026.
2. In-ovo sexing at industrial scaleDelivered25 million eggs by November 2023; 170 million by January 2026, per the company.
3. Inner egg quality analyticsPartialFertility detection is a product; no quality-grading product has been announced.
4. Independent performance dataNot publishedThe 99.5% accuracy figure reported in 2026 is the company's own.

What Has Happened Since the Award

The market Orbem serves exists because of law. When AgFunderNews reported on the sector in December 2023, citing the nonprofit Innovate Animal Ag, in-ovo sexing covered almost 15% of the EU's laying hens, about 56 million of 389 million, and none in the United States. The European Commission's animal welfare proposal at the time did not include an EU-wide culling ban. Growth in Europe therefore depends on national bans, and growth in the US on retailers choosing to pay for it.

The Money

Orbem's Series A in October 2023 was a €30 million mix of debt and equity led by 83North, as reported by Silicon Canals and the company. The EIC grant, a grant-only award with no equity, was less than 3% of the money it has raised.

Why Europe Should Care

European law created the in-ovo sexing market and a European company is among its leaders. Orbem is now exporting that position to the United States, where the practice is not banned, while its investors are betting that the same scanners can be used far beyond eggs.

The Verdict

Orbem has not been asked for comment for this article. It is based entirely on public records, company statements and EU project data, linked throughout.