Omegga raises ~€10M seed to end mass culling of male chicks with AI spectroscopy

What's the deal? Munich-based deeptech startup Omegga has raised roughly €10M in a seed round led by Capnamic and IQ CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, with the EIC Fund also participating. The company uses AI-powered spectroscopy to determine the sex of chicken eggs before they hatch — a non-invasive process already deployed with its first customers.

Omegga tackles a massive ethical and economic problem: billions of male chicks are killed worldwide each year shortly after hatching because they can't lay eggs and aren't commercially viable for meat production. The startup's technology integrates directly into industrial incubation workflows.

Why now? Regulatory pressure on the poultry industry is mounting. Several European countries have already banned or restricted the culling of male chicks, pushing hatcheries to adopt in-egg sexing solutions. Omegga's combination of AI and optical spectroscopy offers a scalable, industry-ready alternative at a time when demand for such technology is surging.

The fresh capital will fund scaling and platform expansion. "With Omegga, a platform technology is emerging that has the potential to fundamentally change multiple industries," said Christian Knott, managing partner at Capnamic. "The team combines scientific depth with entrepreneurial pragmatism — a rare combination."

What could go wrong? Omegga operates in a niche where accuracy and speed are non-negotiable — hatcheries process thousands of eggs per hour. Any reliability issues at scale could erode trust quickly. The startup also faces competition from other in-egg sexing approaches, including endocrine and genetic methods already on the market.

The signal: The involvement of the EIC Fund — the European Innovation Council's equity arm — alongside specialist deeptech investors Capnamic and IQ Capital underscores how EU institutional capital is actively backing startups aligned with the bloc's animal welfare legislation. Omegga's classification as "early growth" on Dealroom, despite this being a seed round, suggests its live customer deployments already place it ahead of most peers at comparable funding stages.

Read more: rechtundpolitik.com