Galway start-up aims to take the drudgery out of life for commercial egg producers

A Galway start-up which has come up with a robot designed to massively ease the workload for commercial egg producers has taken a major award for fledgling companies in the early-stages of their development.

Izario Poultry Robotics was founded by Raymond Heneghan and Stepan Dzhanov and based at Loughgeorge, Claregalway.

It has developed an autonomous robot that operates in broiler-breeder and commercial egg-laying hen barns.

The robot carries out tasks similar to the farmer – such as picking floor eggs, monitoring bird health and welfare along with monitoring the sheds environmental outputs.

The robot reduces labour inputs whilst also allowing farmers or processors to make informed decisions based on data.

And all of that saw them named as the AgTechUCD One to Watch for 2022 at UCD’s inaugural accelerator programme last week – where they received their €8,000 prize.

Izario CEO and co-founder Raymond Heneghan said they were delighted with the One to Watch Award.

“This is a recognition by the investor judging panel of the value that robotics can bring to the poultry sector,” he said.

“We look forward to continuing of expansion and creating jobs in Galway in the coming year,” he added.

In addition to Izario, Cotter Agritech was named the AIB and Yield Lab AgTech Start-up 2022 and received €10k and ProvEye was named the Ornua Most Innovative AgTech Start-up 2022 and received €10k.

The AgTechUCD Agccelerator Programme, an intensive twelve-week virtual programme, included dedicated business development workshops and investor readiness training, mentoring from AgTech and FoodTech experts and business advisors, guest speakers and facilitated introductions to AgTechUCD’s venture capital and business angel networks.

AgTechUCD’s focus is supporting founding entrepreneurs as they build their innovative businesses into leading enterprises, though the AgTechUCD Agccelerator Programme, and by providing access to incubation space and to on-farm testing for new products and services at UCD Lyons Farm.