Project summary

Better Hatch Network is a nonprofit co-founded by Aditi Basu and Amanda Littlewood, working to eliminate male chick culling across Asia-Pacific by accelerating industry adoption of in-ovo sexing technology. This technology — which determines chick sex before hatching, eliminating the need to cull male chicks at birth — is proven, commercially viable, and already deployed at scale in Europe. The barrier to adoption in APAC isn't technological. It's the absence of the advocacy infrastructure needed to drive systemic industry change.

We're currently in a Rethink Priorities-supported incubation period, building that infrastructure from the ground up.

This Manifund page covers our travel expenses to attend a high-priority convening in 2026: the Animal and Vegan Advocacy (AVA) International Summit in Toronto, Canada (May 21-24).

What are this project's goals? How will you achieve them?

Our immediate goal is to use this conference to build the relationships and coalitions that Better Hatch Network's long-term success depends on.

At the AVA Summit, we aim to:

1. Deliver a talk on why in-ovo technology needs a movement behind it and why technology readiness isn't sufficient on its own.

2. Connect with and pitch our organisation to mission-aligned funders.

3. Connect with animal advocates who are also working on welfare technologies and their adoption.

4. Connect with animal advocates based in South and Southeast Asia.

This trip is timed to a critical early phase of our organisation. The connections we make now will likely shape our strategy, partnerships, and funding pipeline for years.

How will this funding be used?

All funds go directly to travel expenses for two co-founders attending the AVA Summit:

• Flights (Melbourne - Toronto - Melbourne): USD 1465 x 2 co-founders = USD 2930

• Accommodation, AVA Summit (2 co-founders, 5 nights): USD 754

• AVA Summit registration: USD 319.56 x 2 co-founders = USD 639.12

• Total: USD 4,323.12

Rethink Priorities is covering our salaries during this incubation period but not operational expenses. This ask covers these expenses.

Who is on your team? What's your track record on similar projects?

Aditi Basu – Aditi has co-founded two organisations prior to Better Hatch Network, one as a CTO in a mental health startup (2022), and the other as a Community Lead (2024) in an effective animal advocacy community group. She has also been leading the development of Metaculus’ first animal-focused forecasting tournament. 

Amanda Littlewood – Amanda draws on 21 years of international experience in operations, compliance and organisational leadership within the financial services industry. She has delivered transformation programs & built compliance frameworks across multiple jurisdictions and led cross-functional teams across Australia, Europe and India.

What are the most likely causes and outcomes if this project fails?

Failure in this case most likely looks like one of two things: 

1) We don’t raise enough to attend this conference

In this case, we will choose one of our co-founders to attend the conference rather than both. 

2) We attend but don’t convert the access to meaningful relationships or opportunities.

To alleviate this risk, we will be preparing specific meeting lists, targeted asks and clear follow-up plans.

How much money have you raised in the last 12 months, and from where?

Rethink Priorities have granted us USD 36,250 total to cover our salaries for 3 months. They will also be covering costs incurred from purchasing our website and email domains.