The main mission of the project was to streamline technological and commercial progress of eggXYt’s sex detection solution by funding scientific milestones in the development of eggXYt’s sex detectable chicken lines and proprietary sex detection scanner and opening opportunities for business partnerships with egg and hatchery industry leaders, for funding from world class investors, for media exposure in leading publications, and more.
The main results and their exploitation & dissemination include the following:
1. eggXYt made technological breakthroughs in the biological development of the sex detectable chicken line. eggXYt’s R&D team was able to master complex protocols for the successful culturing and gene editing of the particular chicken cells required for inheritable traits.
2. eggXYt made significant progress in the development of the seXYt scanner.
3. eggXYt has forged commercial relationships with the leading industry players to streamline our go-to-market strategy including with TBG AG, the holding company of leading hatchery equipment producers Moba, Petersime, Jamesway, and Chick Master, which collectively service 66% of layer hatcheries worldwide. TBG AG is also an investor in eggXYt. eggXYt has publicized this partnership in many news sources, including our features in Food Navigator, Israel21C, Israeli Ministry of Economy and Industry Foreign Trade Administration’s website, and El Productor.
4. eggXYt has forged relationships with key stakeholders, who will be critical in pushing forward consumer and regulatory acceptance for our solution. From the egg industry, we have forged relationships with Andre Hodel; Philip Wilkinson, OBE; American Egg Board; and United Egg Producers. Andre Hodel is the CEO and Chairman of Prodavi, one of Switzerland’s largest egg producers. Out of enthusiasm for our solution, Andre Hodel and Philip Wilkson joined our advisory board.
In terms of governmental affiliations, we have forged relationships most notably with Philipp Roessler (former Vice Chancellor of Germany and current board member of the WEF) and Jan-Christoph Oetjen of the Free Democratic Party in Germany. We have also been in touch with the governmental research corporation Embrapa in Brazil. Lastly, we have engaged many animal rights’ groups including Animal Equality, which is lobbying to end chick culling around the world.
5. eggXYt secured its proprietary rights by filing numerous patent applications worldwide. eggXYt’s patent families protecting its core technology of sex detection of chick has been the subject of 51 pending applications in more than 40 jurisdictions, spanning 111 countries.
6. eggXYt has been empowered to raise additional funding based of the traction achieved through R&D results and commercial partnerships. Notable investors include TBG AG, Solve Innovation Future (the venture arm of MIT Solve), Rimonim (an Israeli agritech venture fund), and Andre Hodel.
7. eggXYt was able to reach broader and new audiences by attracting features in world class news publications such as: Watt Poultry, Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, The Guardian, Cornell University’s Alliance for Science, Jerusalem Post, Poultry World, Food Navigator, Bloomberg, CNN Business, Science Magazine, TECHnGOOD, Forward Fooding, Labiotech, CV Magazine, and The Silicon Review.
8. eggXYt was able to gain additional exposure through participation in accelerators and competitions. eggXYt was named a Sustainable Food Systems Solver at MIT Solve. eggXYt also participated in Unreasonable Impact, an accelerator run by Barclay’s. eggXYt also successfully completed EIT FAN. Additionally, eggXYt was listed on Forward Fooding’s Top 500 list at position 20 and was the winner of the Food Pitch at VERGE 2020.
