The winning teams of the EIC Accelerator were selected through a highly competitive process. Out of a total of 1,083 submitted applications, 242 companies were interviewed by a jury of experienced investors and entrepreneurs. In the end, 42 European startups were selected, seven of them from Germany, including Omegga from Munich.
Non-invasive solution for determining the sex of chicken embryos
Omegga is a biotech company that wants to solve the ethical dilemma in the poultry industry with its in-ovo sexing technology. Billions of male chicks are killed worldwide because they are of no interest to the industry either for laying eggs or as a meat supply. In early 2022, the routine killing of chicks was banned in Germany. Omegga’s technology intervenes before hatching: a purely optical, non-invasive solution is designed to determine the sex of chicken embryos – specifically before the seventh day of incubation, when the sensory perception of the chicken embryo is not yet developed. On LinkedIn, the company writes:
“Our mission is clear: we want to end the practice of culling male chicks worldwide using the earliest (before day seven), most cost-effective, and non-invasive technology for determining the sex of chicken embryos based on AI-powered spectroscopy.”
The Munich startup is receiving funding of 2.4 million euros.
285 million euros in funding
In total, the 42 selected companies will receive up to 285 million euros in funding. The vast majority of selected companies will receive the option of blended finance, a combination of grants and equity investments. The equity investments will be made through the EIC Fund, which was specifically established for EIC Accelerator companies and is designed to attract further investors to increase overall investments to an average of three times the EIC investments.
In most cases, companies will receive the grants within the next two to three months, while the first investment decisions will be made within two months, depending on the urgency of the companies’ needs. An additional 193 applications that met all criteria in the remote assessment phase and were positively evaluated by the EIC jury, but for which insufficient funds were available, will receive a seal of excellence to help them in their search for alternative funding sources, including from the Recovery and Resilience Facility and the European Regional Development Fund.
