About Us
Innovate Animal Ag is a nonprofit industry think tank that accelerates the adoption of transformative technologies in animal agriculture. We work collaboratively with stakeholders across the supply chain to foster innovation that enhances production efficiency while simultaneously advancing animal welfare, sustainability, and public health.
Our Approach
Industrialization in animal agriculture has delivered an era of remarkable abundance, making safe, affordable, and nutritious animal protein available to more people than ever before. This abundance is the direct result of decades of continuous innovation and technological progress.
Today, as artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology advance at a rapid pace, there's a chance to reimagine the supply chain once again. These technologies hold the promise to make our food supply more abundant and efficient, while simultaneously advancing broader issues of increasing importance to the industry, such as animal welfare, environmental sustainability, and public health.
But realizing this potential isn't simple. Compared to other sectors, animal agriculture faces unique barriers: production is capital-intensive, biologically complex, and highly sensitive to risk. Adopting new technology often requires significant up-front investment, operational adjustments, and long learning curves — daunting for producers already navigating thin margins and tight timelines. As a result, venture funding for animal agricultural technology remains limited, and the pace of adoption has lagged behind other industries.
Innovate Animal Ag exists to change this dynamic. Through philanthropic backing, Innovate Animal Ag has the freedom to pursue innovation without the pressure of short-term returns. We identify the technologies that matter, validate them through rigorous research and real-world trials, and help deploy them across the industry — partnering with established stakeholders, publishing actionable original research, directing catalytic funding, and launching the companies that bring new tools to market.
Bringing Silicon Valley
to animal agriculture
We're technologists first. Our team is rooted in Silicon Valley's culture of innovation, with deep expertise in the emerging technologies reshaping the modern economy. And we've spent years studying a deeper question: what actually causes innovation to take hold in an industry? From Bell Labs to DARPA, we've studied how history's great engines of innovation were built — the conditions that turn talent, capital, and ideas into breakthroughs that reach the real world. We bring those lessons to animal agriculture, so innovation can help unlock the industry's full potential.
Impact
Founded in early 2023, Innovate Animal Ag began by surveying emerging technologies in animal agriculture that could deliver both greater efficiency and improved animal welfare. Among many promising options, we identified in-ovo sexing as especially compelling: a novel approach capable of solving a major challenge in the egg industry without compromising productivity.
At the time, its higher upfront cost led much of the industry to overlook it, assuming it was a niche solution that would require regulatory mandates to scale. But we recognized those costs would fall as the technology matured — and that in-ovo sexing could ultimately improve efficiency and give producers across the supply chain new ways to deliver value to their customers. We predicted that in-ovo sexing demand outside of Europe would be driven purely by market forces, not regulatory mandates.
We began publishing detailed research to fill critical information gaps about the technology, revealing how quickly it was being adopted across Europe and underscoring its global potential. And we worked closely with producers across the US egg industry, offering unbiased expertise to help them navigate the transition.
Our efforts culminated in December 2024 with the first run of in-ovo sexing in the United States — quickly followed by Brazil in 2025 and Australia in 2026, all without regulatory mandates as we’d predicted. Today, we continue to steward its rollout across the US and around the world, ensuring it stays beneficial for everyone across the supply chain.
Bulwark Biologics was our next major project. We identified electron-beam vaccination as a technology that could give producers better protection against the bacterial diseases that drive significant losses across the industry, funded the academic trials to validate it, and spun the work out into an independent company. Bulwark is now advancing through the USDA's Center for Veterinary Biologics approval process and standing up commercial trials with integrator partners.
Building on these successes, we're actively expanding our programs to identify, research, and accelerate the next generation of technologies that will reshape animal agriculture.
Team
Robert Yaman, CEO
Robert Yaman founded Innovate Animal Ag following a decade-long career within the Silicon Valley ecosystem, spanning traditional software, venture-backed biotechnology, large corporates, and startups. With extensive experience guiding new technologies from early concept through commercialization, Robert is dedicated to bringing a fresh perspective to animal agriculture, fostering advancements in an industry where innovation has historically lagged.
Casey Downey, Program Director
Contact · Focus Area: In-Ovo Sexing
Casey Downey brings extensive experience from the financial sector, where he specialized in business strategy and economic modeling. At Innovate Animal Ag, Casey leverages this background to identify and support financially sustainable innovations that drive efficiency and positive transformation in the agricultural sector.
Gabriela Menin, Program Director
Contact· Focus Area: Brazil
Gabriela Menin brings a background in management consulting and strategy from roles at McKinsey & Company and QuintoAndar, one of Brazil’s largest startups. She has led cross-functional projects, advised C-level executives, and worked across sectors including real estate, finance, and telecommunications. Gabriela leads Innovate Animal Ag’s work in Brazil, leveraging her industry knowledge, stakeholder network, and passion for technology to support regional innovation and expansion.
Kristin Marschhauser, Program Director
Kristin Marschhauser joins Innovate Animal Ag after 15 years in technology, including leadership and strategic partnership roles at Facebook and DoorDash. She has a proven track record of building ecosystems, fostering collaboration, and developing programs that drive innovation and growth. At Innovate Animal Ag, Kristin applies this expertise to advance partnerships and initiatives that accelerate the adoption of technologies improving animal agriculture's sustainability, welfare, and productivity.
Diego Pedulla-Smith, Senior Program Associate
Diego Pedulla-Smith brings experience from Boston Consulting Group, where he worked with Fortune 500 companies on strategic planning, workforce transformation, and socially responsible business practices. His projects have included generative AI strategy development and research on equitable energy transitions. Across these roles, Diego has focused on designing solutions that align business incentives with long-term social impact.