The North Carolina-based AgTech company closes a debt financing agreement with a life sciences-specialised credit fund, underpinning the deployment of its automated sexing system in the USA, Europe and South America
nnnnNeXusAvicultura Editorial Team – TARGAN, the American animal health technology company founded in 2015 and headquartered in Raleigh, North Carolina, has announced the signing of a financing agreement valued at $100 million with Symbiotic Capital, a private credit fund specialising in the healthcare and life sciences sector. The agreement was closed in December 2025 and includes an initial tranche of $30 million already disbursed, and was officially announced by the company on 2 February 2026.
nnnn“TARGAN has gone from raising $51 million in equity to securing $100 million in growth debt. This is a new example of a life sciences-specialised credit fund backing a poultry technology company.”
nnnnThe deal, which comes at a time of strong commercial momentum for the company, strengthens TARGAN’s balance sheet, replaces its previous senior lender (Live Oak Bank) and provides liquidity and flexibility to bring new technologies to market during 2026 and 2027. It represents, in short, financial fuel for a company that aspires to become a global benchmark in hatchery automation.
nnnnWingScan™: from North Carolina to three continents
nnnnThe bulk of the funds will be directed towards accelerating the commercial deployment of WingScan™, TARGAN’s flagship system for the automated sexing of day-old chicks using machine vision and artificial intelligence. WingScan™ analyses the wing feathering of each chick with high-speed cameras and machine learning algorithms, determining sex with an accuracy of up to 98% and at speeds of up to 160,000 chicks per hour depending on the equipment configuration.
nnnnnnnnn“WingScan™ is already operating on three continents and its revenues doubled in a single year. This is not a technological promise: this is a company in the execution phase at global scale.”
n
As we previously analysed at NeXusAvicultura at the end of 2024 on the occasion of its presentation at EuroTier, WingScan™ took its first step in the European market at that time with a contract with the Polish firm IKO Kompania Drobiarska, facilitated by Viscon Hatchery Automation as distribution and service partner. Since that milestone, the system’s international expansion has been remarkable: it has also been deployed in Canada — where it is already operating in the hatcheries of Trouw Nutrition and Boire & Frères, the largest in the country — and continues to add installations in the United States and South America.
nnnnAutomated feather sexing allows hatcheries to address one of the sector’s longstanding bottlenecks: dependence on highly specialised manual sexers, a workforce that is increasingly scarce and costly. With WingScan™, male and female BROILER chicks are separated automatically, opening the door to sex-differentiated flock management strategies on farm — separate rearing, adapted nutrition, specific health programmes — with benefits that subsequently carry through to the processing plant in the form of greater flock uniformity and improved carcass yields.
nnnnThis capital injection ensures that the solutions that stood out at events such as IPPE 2026 continue to evolve, consolidating automation and artificial intelligence as the pillars of the poultry industry of the future.
Sex-separate rearing of broiler chicks: where AI stops being abstract and starts delivering results
nnnnBeyond hatchery efficiency, the true productive potential of WingScan™ is realised further down the chain, in the grow-out house. Sex-separate rearing in broilers is a practice whose advantages research and field experience have been documenting for years: males, with their faster growth rate and different metabolic profile, respond to different nutritional and lighting programmes than females. When reared together, management is inevitably a compromise for both sexes; when separated, it becomes possible to adjust stocking density, feeding curves, target temperature and even the optimal slaughter point to the actual needs of each group. The result is a significant improvement in feed conversion ratio, flock uniformity and carcass yield, with a direct impact on integrator margins.
nnnnUntil now, the main obstacle to generalising sex-separate rearing in the broiler sector was not a lack of scientific evidence, but rather the practical difficulty of mass sexing of day-old chicks. Traditional methods — specialised sexers examining the cloaca or wing feathers by hand — are slow, expensive and increasingly difficult to scale due to a shortage of trained professionals. WingScan™ eliminates that bottleneck at source. By automating the process using machine vision and artificial intelligence at speeds of up to 160,000 chicks per hour, it makes universal sexing a viable, consistent and scalable operation. It is, arguably, one of the most tangible examples with the highest return on investment of AI applied to poultry production: this is not an algorithm that generates impressive reports, but a system that makes real-time decisions on the production line, with measurable consequences at every subsequent stage of the supply chain.
nnnnnnnnn“Automation in the hatchery has ceased to be an option and is becoming an operational necessity. The shortage of manual sexers is not going to resolve itself.”
n
Who is Symbiotic Capital?
nnnnSymbiotic Capital is no conventional fund. It is a life sciences-specialised credit platform, founded in 2024 within the ecosystem of Bellco Capital, the investment vehicle of biotech entrepreneur Arie Belldegrun, co-founder of Kite Pharma (sold to Gilead Sciences for $11.9 billion in 2017). Symbiotic launched publicly in August 2024 with more than $600 million in committed capital and a clear mandate: to provide credit solutions to healthcare companies in the growth and commercialisation phase, minimising the need for new equity rounds that would dilute shareholders.
nnnnIts scientific advisory team includes former Roche CEO Franz Humer and former Cleveland Clinic CEO Toby Cosgrove, underscoring the “science-driven credit” approach that differentiates Symbiotic from generalist lenders. The fact that a fund of this profile is backing TARGAN is, in itself, a meaningful signal: it validates the company’s positioning at the intersection of animal health, artificial intelligence and animal protein production.
nnnnnnnnn“Symbiotic Capital, backed by more than $600 million, brings TARGAN more than just money: a network and a credibility in life sciences that is difficult to replicate.”
n
Chris York, Senior Managing Director at Symbiotic Capital, has highlighted TARGAN’s strong commercial momentum and the level of adoption that WingScan™ is achieving as a reflection of the solution’s strength and the growing demand for innovation in the animal health industry.
nnnnA trajectory of accelerated growth
nnnnThe numbers support the bet. According to the company itself, TARGAN’s revenues more than doubled between 2024 and 2025, and projections point to sustained year-on-year growth in the 2025–2026 cycle. Prior to this financing, TARGAN had raised approximately $51 million across successive venture capital rounds, including a $35 million Series C in 2022 led by Mountain Group Partners and NovaQuest Capital Management, with participation from Merck Animal Health Ventures. Its investor base also includes Emergence Incubator, Open Doors Partners and Oval Park Capital, among others.
nnnnThe new $100 million line in debt format — not equity — allows TARGAN to finance its expansion without diluting existing shareholders, a decision that speaks to financial maturity and a sufficiently robust recurring revenue stream to sustain a credit structure of this magnitude.
nnnn
The technological innovations emerging in commercial poultry production, enhanced by AI, are opening new doors for the management of our flocks.
nnnnFor the NeXusAvicultura reader — poultry professionals who want to stay up to date — this deal carries several implications that deserve attention.
nnnnFirst, it confirms that poultry AgTech is maturing as an investment category. While venture capital in AgTech broadly has experienced a downward trend since 2022, with investors clearly favouring companies at advanced stages with demonstrated commercial traction (the so-called “flight to quality”), TARGAN has managed not only to raise capital but to do so through debt — an instrument that requires confidence in the ability to generate predictable cash flows. It is a signal that the company’s technology has moved beyond the promise phase and into the execution phase.
nnnnnnnnn“Poultry technology innovations with real commercial traction and proven technology continue to attract financing. Major capital investors are discriminating, but they have already placed poultry among the portfolios they consider.”
n
Second, the deal reinforces the idea that hatchery automation is an irreversible trend. The chronic shortage of skilled labour in hatcheries, exacerbated in markets such as North America and Europe by demographic pressures and immigration policies, makes solutions like WingScan™ almost indispensable tools for maintaining operational competitiveness. Added to this is growing regulatory and market pressure towards sex-differentiated rearing, particularly in the context of animal welfare.
nnnnThird, TARGAN has announced that part of the funds will be used to develop new technologies for 2026 and 2027. The company already has a Vaccine Delivery System and has indicated future projects aimed at bringing automation, precision and data-driven decision-making to more links in the animal protein production chain. The stated objective of Ramin Karimpour, CEO and founder of TARGAN, is to address some of the most pressing challenges in global food production.
nnnnDeal summary
nnnn| Company | TARGAN, Inc. |
| Headquarters | Raleigh, North Carolina (USA) |
| Founded | 2015 (formerly Applied LifeSciences & Systems) |
| CEO and Founder | Ramin Karimpour |
| Financier | Symbiotic Capital (life sciences credit fund) |
| Amount | Up to $100 million USD (first tranche: $30M USD) |
| Closing | December 2025 |
| Cumulative prior financing | ~$51 million USD in equity (6 rounds, Series C in 2022) |
| Historic investors | Mountain Group Partners, NovaQuest Capital Management, Merck Animal Health Ventures, Emergence Incubator, Oval Park Capital, Open Doors Partners |
| Flagship technology | WingScan™ (AI-powered automated feather sexing) |
| Active markets | USA, Canada, Europe (Poland and Spain), South America |
| Employees | ~116 |
At a time when major international capital is rediscovering poultry production as a strategic asset—as we saw this very week with the billion-dollar investment in Global Eggs—, the TARGAN deal adds another piece to the puzzle: not only do egg and meat production attract capital, but so does the technology layer that makes it possible. The question is no longer whether automated day-old chick sexing will arrive, but how quickly it will do so.
nnnnFrom startup to leader in poultry biotechnology
nnnnSince its founding under the name Applied LifeSciences & Systems, TARGAN has followed a solid path. According to records from PitchBook, the company had already attracted the interest of top-tier investors such as Merck Animal Health Ventures and NovaQuest Capital Management in previous rounds (Series C).
nnnnCEO and founder Ramin Karimpour has highlighted that this new stage will allow the company to address “the most urgent challenges in global food production.” For its part, Symbiotic Capital, a fund specialising in the health sector, has justified its investment based on TARGAN’s strong commercial traction and its ability to integrate AI and machine learning into the animal protein value chain.
nnnnnnnn
Current status of automated chick sexing in Spain
nnnnSpanish broiler production is moving from curiosity to commercial implementation of automated sexing systems that use artificial intelligence to optimise production.
In early 2025, Grupo UVESA became a pioneer in Spain by automating the sexing of day-old broiler chicks at its hatchery in Tudela, Navarra. The technology chosen was the Genesys system developed by Ceva Salud Animal. This equipment stands out for achieving an accuracy of over 97%, minimising the errors associated with manual methods and ensuring a consistent processing speed. Furthermore, its modular and compact design allows it to be easily integrated into existing hatchery facilities.
Six months later, in June 2025, Pondex, part of Grupo Vall Companys, established a strategic alliance with US company Targan to install the WingScan™ system at its hatchery in Juneda. This technology is based on feather recognition using advanced artificial intelligence algorithms to classify broiler chicks quickly and accurately, marking a milestone in the adoption of intelligent automation at European hatcheries.
In both cases, the adoption of these technologies responds to the need to improve operational efficiency and address the shortage of qualified personnel for traditional manual sexing. In addition, early separation by sex enables differentiated rearing that significantly improves flock uniformity and allows nutrition to be tailored to the specific requirements of males and females.
nnnnnnnnnnnn
To learn more:
-. UVESA installs the first automated chick sexing system in Spain (February 2025)
-. Pondex implements TARGAN’s WingScan technology for automated broiler chick sexing (June 2025)
-. Automated chick sexing on NeXusAvicultura
nnnn
Want to stay one step ahead in poultry?
Subscribe free to our eNewsletter and receive a weekly selection
of the best information to anticipate trends, stay up to date and grow as a poultry professional.
NeXusAvicultura: Vision, Insight, Quality and Context.