“Orbem, a Munich-based Startup, Raises $31.8M for Innovative AI-Powered MRI Technology – Targeting Poultry Eggs First, Then Humans”
Countries like Germany, France, and Italy have passed laws in recent years to end the culling of male day-old chicks. As these chicks don’t lay eggs, they were discarded as needless. This decision was not only prompted by the waste it generated but also due to ethical and animal welfare concerns. These laws were intended to stimulate tech firms to find methods to identify the sex of chicks before they hatch.
One technology deployed now is hyperspectral imaging, which can accurately identify the sex of chicks based on plumage color on day 13 of incubation. A fully automated system named “CHEGGY” is being utilized in commercial hatcheries for this purpose. It can detect various aspects of eggs such as freshness, broken yolks, and shell cracks with an accuracy of up to about 97% in certain cases. However, the system has a significant downside: it’s slow.
Orbem, a Munich-based startup emerging from PhD research into MRI technology, ventured to address this issue and expedite the process. They’ve combined an industrial MRI scanner with an AI-based platform that allows hatcheries to determine the sex of an egg non-invasively and without contact. Orbem boasts that their system can scan an egg in just one second, significantly faster than existing processes.
To date, Orbem claims to have scanned over 20 million eggs and even reached profitability. Since its launch in 2019, the startup has raised €30 million ($31.8 million) in a Series A funding round led by 83North, and joined by new investor La Famiglia along with existing investors The Venture Collective and Possible Ventures. Prior to this, the company had amassed €10 million, half of which came from equity-free funds like research grants from the European Union and the German government.
Orbem was spun out from the Technical University of Munich by the founders who met there during their PhDs. As stated by Dr. Pedro Gómez, co-founder and CEO of Orbem, they initially targeted poultry producers due to significant issues in the sector. The industry tends to discard countless unfertilized eggs or kill one-day-old males which is ethically and environmentally unsustainable. Now, regulations have been enacted to halt this practice.
But Orbem aspires to go beyond that. Their technology could also be used to scan nuts to detect parasites or grade their interior quality for dynamic pricing purposes. Moreover, it can be used for scanning other biological samples, plant species, and even the human body.
A significant trend appears to be on the horizon with the integration of MRI and AI. Over the past three years, more than 710,000 “AI for MRI” patents have been filed and granted in the medical devices industry. The global market for AI in medical imaging is projected to reach $29.8 billion by 2032. Nowadays, AI is being tapped into to enhance MRI scans in humans, replacing less efficient and invasive methods.
Reflecting on this trend, Oliver Schoppe, principal at UVC Partners, praised Orbem’s unique competitive differentiation: their robust technical vertical integration down to the hardware of MRI.
