Perhaps it's for this reason that the young Munich-based start-up Orbem recently made international headlines, as times are currently so gloomy. In a world where daily news about wars, climate change, and other disasters bombard people, an announcement like this provides a positive change: The company, founded in 2019 and developing a technology to prevent the industrial shredding of male chicks, has received a financial boost of 30 million euros from investors. A substantial sum for a company with just over 50 employees.

While the routine killing of so-called day-old chicks is now legally prohibited in Germany and France, this practice continues to be part of everyday hatchery life in many other countries. According to Orbem, an estimated seven billion male chicks are killed each year because they have no use in the poultry industry.

The three founders, Maria Laparidou, Pedro Gómez, and Miguel Molina, aim to spare these animals from this fate by not hatching them at all. Instead, the entrepreneurs use their technology for the early and contactless detection of gender in the egg – using AI-supported MRI technology.

Magnetic resonance imaging is typically an expensive and slow imaging technique, primarily used in hospitals. By having artificial intelligence take on the roles of the technician and radiologist at Orbem, the process is intended to be accelerated and made applicable for various use cases in the food industry. With Orbem's technology, the scanning process for an egg is completed in one second. In contrast, traditional MRI scans would take between 15 and 20 minutes.

"We provide hatcheries with a complete solution, including the necessary hardware and software," explains CEO Pedro Gómez of the business model. "Hatcheries only pay a fee per egg and don't have to worry about the machine. Only one operator is needed for the entire solution."

Orbem claims to have been profitable since the first quarter and recently convinced the German laying hen breeder Lohmann to become a customer. In October, as part of the funding round, several well-known German investors joined, including the Berlin-based venture capital firm La Famiglia, Personio co-founder Hanno Renner, former Zalando CEO Rubin Ritter, and Celonis co-founder Bastian Nominacher.

The attention to the funding is likely also related to the general fascination surrounding artificial intelligence. In the current year, this fascination has mainly been triggered by the widespread emergence of generative applications such as chatbots, image or video tools. However, even when AI does not independently generate content but merely analyzes large amounts of data using self-learning algorithms and accelerates decision-making, its disruptive potential in the economy is hard to underestimate.

In an ethical consideration, this can have various consequences. According to studies, hundreds of millions of jobs could be eliminated by AI in the future. Critics warn that inequalities in society may solidify through AI. For years, there has also been international discussion about the questionable use of autonomous weapons systems.

On the other hand, the technology can bring about ethically desirable changes that simply do not make economic sense without its use – such as more effective animal protection, especially in agriculture.

Other startups have also dedicated themselves to this cause, alongside Orbem. For instance, the Belgian company Soundtalks has developed an AI-based monitoring system for pigsties that warns early of respiratory diseases in animals. The monitoring takes place 24/7 via monitors and microphones, complementing the daily inspections by farmers. Similar solutions for continuous and intelligent livestock monitoring are offered by, among others, the Canadian startup Onecup.AI, Vetvise from Hanover, or Farmsee from Israel, each utilizing specialized camera systems for monitoring.

According to veterinarian Marc-Alexander Lieboldt from the Chamber of Agriculture in Lower Saxony, such digital assistance systems for automated animal observation can bring several advantages. An important aspect lies in the natural behavior of animals, which sometimes complicates a well-founded assessment of their well-being: "In the presence of the animal owner or barn staff, livestock behave differently than when they are absent," says Lieboldt. "They are curious and focus on humans. Undesirable behaviors or subtle signs of illness may not be observable in these moments."

As part of a joint project funded by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Lieboldt is currently researching the possible uses of sensor systems already available on the market in pig farming. The focus is mainly on various types of video image analysis using intelligent camera systems, which can now analyze not only the overall posture of each animal but also individual body parts. "Algorithms are already capable of recognizing whether a tail is curled or hanging down," describes Lieboldt a specific use case. "A curled tail indicates that the pig is doing well. A hanging tail indicates discomfort." Here, the systems could automatically raise an alarm if something is amiss.

From the expert's perspective, such automated checks can also be sensible for other reasons. The number of people employed in German agriculture has been declining for years. At the same time, the number of animals on farms continues to rise. Whereas a pig farm in Germany held an average of 207 animals in the year 2000, it was already 1,300 animals this year according to Statista. The average number of animals has also increased significantly in dairy farming and the poultry industry in recent years.

"The herd size plays an important role in the decision of livestock farmers regarding digital assistance systems in general," says Lieboldt. "Of course, hundreds of cows in dairy farms are viewed differently than thousands of pigs in fattening farms or tens of thousands of chickens in poultry farms." The scientist believes that there could be a great interest in the future, especially where livestock is kept in very large barns, such as in China or the USA.

The swine cough detector from Soundtalks is already on the market in these two countries, and it was introduced in Germany last year. According to the pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, which acquired a stake in the startup in 2019, more and more farms are using the system. The number of sick animals is simultaneously decreasing among customers, leading to a reduction in antibiotic use, as a spokesperson explained.

The use of artificial intelligence to enhance animal welfare and health is not limited to agriculture alone. Household and wild animals also benefit from technological innovations developed by startups worldwide—and from the investments pouring in from venture capital investors. Recently, the South Korean company Petnow received a funding injection of over $5 million to advance its business in AI-based identification of dogs and cats. Specifically, the startup founded in 2018 offers an app that scans the biometric facial features of pets, potentially eliminating the need for chipping. The app has been available in Germany since the end of February.

Startup investors seem to have a fondness for animal companions this year in general. According to data service Pitchbook, the pet technology sector is on track to surpass the global venture capital volume compared to 2022, despite all the economic uncertainties. Observers attribute this trend to the COVID-19 pandemic, during which more households acquired one or more pets.

In contrast, the funding crisis in agricultural technology is clearly felt this year: According to data service Crunchbase and the online magazine Croplife, financing in the first three quarters has dropped by more than half compared to the previous year, totaling $4.5 billion. In the subsector of animal health, investments have decreased by about one-third.

In the third quarter, companies that advance the energy transition with their technologies were particularly popular among venture capital investors. This endeavor also has implications for wildlife—implications that startups like Spoor AI are working to minimize. The Norwegian company, founded in 2020, is currently working on commercializing software for AI-based bird observation in offshore wind parks. The goal is to prevent collisions between birds and the wind turbines.

Authors of a study funded by Vattenfall claimed to have found this year that seabirds deliberately avoid the rotor blades of wind turbines. However, the Swedes continue their research on the topic, including with the technology from Spoor. This technology is intended to enable wind park operators not only to observe birds remotely and predict their behavior but also, in the future, to automatically shut down the turbines during heavy bird migration. The Danish energy company Orsted invested in the startup a year ago.