Orbem’s journey into revolutionizing the poultry industry didn’t begin with a single, predefined problem, but rather with a broader quest: to identify and solve the world’s toughest challenges using AI-powered imaging. The year 2017 proved pivotal; as Orbem’s founders actively explored diverse challenges, several threads began to converge, eventually steering them towards the poultry sector. Conversations with poultry industry stakeholders first sparked the idea for poultry applications. This aligned with on-going research at TUM (Technical University of Munich), where all founders were independently working on side projects scanning eggs.

Orbem’s initial focus, driven by this confluence of events and search for impactful applications, became in-ovo sexing. The team saw it as a prime candidate for AI-powered imaging solutions. They dove deep from technical, scientific, and commercial perspectives, visiting hatcheries, scanning thousands of eggs (our first images date back to 2017), and engaging extensively with industry stakeholders. It was during these crucial conversations, while exploring the intricacies of in-ovo sexing, that a hatchery expert presented a new challenge: “If you can tell me which eggs are fertilized before incubation, I will buy five machines“. This compelling request opened our eyes to a second vital application: early fertilization status detection.

Both of these workstreams – in-ovo sexing and pre-incubation fertilization status detection – showed immense promise and eventually led to patents that helped consolidate the foundations of Orbem. The team even took initial steps towards fertilization status detection in 2021, but soon came to refocus their strategic priorities due to dramatic shifts in the poultry landscape in the same year.

In 2021, France passed a law effectively banning the culling of male chicks, creating an immediate and urgent market demand for viable in-ovo sexing solutions. This pivotal regulatory change presented a window of opportunity that Orbem couldn’t ignore, prompting the team to go “all-in” on in-ovo sexing. Orbem signed its first two customers and spent the next two years intensely focused on launching and scaling its in-ovo sexing operations with the Genus Focus, their technology for in-ovo sexing. Germany’s stricter regulation, establishing day 12 of incubation as the last possible day for in-ovo sexing, further accelerated technology adoption, cementing Orbem’s European market leadership in this domain.

Despite the success of the Genus Focus, the original challenge of wasted unfertilized eggs was never resolved. As Orbem grew and matured, building its capacity and expertise, the “why” for the Genus Scale (their technology for fertilization status detection) remained as compelling as ever. With the company now more established, it was a natural and easy decision to revisit one of its formative ideas.

The poultry industry continues to seek ways to optimize production with innovation, and the staggering statistic of 10 billion unfertilized eggs wasted annually in incubation worldwide underscores the persistent need. Crucially, no other solution exists to detect these unfertilized eggs before they enter the incubation setters. Building on the wealth of experience gained in delivering end-to-end hatchery solutions with the Genus Focus, the team recognized that 2025 was the perfect time to fully develop and prepare to bring the Genus Scale to market.

The technological journey of the Genus Scale had its origins in Orbem’s earliest R&D efforts, where MRI was used to identify relevant biomarkers for fertilization status detection. These initial explorations provided crucial insights into the hardware requirements for a marketable solution.

In 2024, with a renewed focus, the dedicated development of today’s Genus Scale began. This involved significant innovation:

• Developing super-fast imaging protocols, accelerating image acquisition by hundreds of times compared to early, clinical methods.

• Extensive data collection to train sophisticated AI models capable of accurately identifying fertilized eggs.

• Collaborating with the Vencomatic Group to design the automation equipment for the Genus Scale, leveraging the successful partnership and learnings from the Genus Focus project.

Now, in 2025, Orbem is on the cusp of a major milestone: less than a year after the first component arrived at the Munich lab, the Wimex Group are the first to install the Genus Scale system. The industry response since the announcement has been overwhelmingly positive, with significant inbound requests from hatcheries eager to improve their hatch rates, enhance their efficiency, and create an additional value stream. The benefits of identifying and removing unfertilized eggs pre-incubation are clear and compelling. 

Orbem’s overarching mission is to contribute to a more sustainable and healthy world. With the Genus Scale, this translates into a tangible goal: bringing those 10 billion unfertilized eggs back into the human food production chain. The plan is to continuously optimize the Genus Scale in close collaboration with customers, maximizing its value and making it an indispensable tool – a “no-brainer” – for any modern hatchery looking to boost efficiency and sustainability. The Genus Scale is not just a product; it’s Orbem’s commitment to addressing a foundational challenge in the poultry industry, a journey that has come full circle. 

And yet, there are more challenges in this world for Orbem to tackle. The team is convinced that AI-powered MRI has the potential to revolutionize further sectors. Be it the food industry or human medicine, accelerated imaging holds the key to unlocking key insights, new levels of operational efficiency and sustainability, as well as alternative sources of income. Who knows what the future holds – but with the same fire that ignited our journey, we press onward, thrilled by the boundless potential to innovate and help build a healthier, more sustainable tomorrow for generations to come.