Evonik Industries has completed the acquisition of Porphyrio NV, the KU Leuven spin-off company headquartered in Herent, Belgium.

Porphyrio is a leading player in the space of big data solutions for livestock production. With this acquisition, Evonik strengthens its activities in precision livestock farming. The parties have agreed not to disclose the sale price.

Porphyrio provides cloud-based specialty software to professional poultry producers worldwide for processing and analyzing livestock data. Their data-driven solutions enable livestock producers to better manage, predict and optimize their operations with the aid of big data bio-statistics and the potential use of artificial intelligence.

“Big data and self-learning algorithms could help producers to gain a better understanding of the complex events in the poultry farm, and these can be linked with concepts for sustainable animal nutrition. In this way, productivity, efficiency, quality and animal welfare will all benefit from synergies in animal nutrition and livestock farming,” said Dr. Emmanuel Auer, head of Evonik’s Animal Nutrition business line.

Evonik will contribute to this at various levels by providing diagnostic kits to record parameters for animal health, software, data analysis and guidance for animal farming and also offer data- and knowledge-based recommendations for feed composition and sustainable diets.

On Nov. 2, Evonik announced a minority investment in OPTIfarm, a company headquartered in Chesterfield, U.K., that provides 24/7 support and service for poultry producers aimed at better animal welfare, improved livestock performance and increased peace of mind. This investment, together with the acquisition of Porphyrio, underpins the company's commitment to precision livestock farming, Evonik stated.

Auer said he firmly believes that “current requirements for livestock farming can only be met through adopting holistic solutions. Our broad service portfolio, which is in part already digital today, exactly ties into this approach.”

For Evonik, this means linking data- and knowledge-based services, along with technical services and the availability of a wide portfolio of feed additives, directly with application in livestock farming. “We know the situation and challenges our customers face, we understand the physiology of the animals and have decades of experience in animal nutrition. Now, we’re bringing all that together with the help of state-of-the-art digital technology — tailored to specific customer requirements.”

Evonik is a global leader in specialty chemicals. The company is active in more than 100 countries, with more than 36,000 employees. In fiscal 2017, the enterprise generated sales of €14.4 billion and an operating profit (adjusted) of €2.36 billion.