Merck buys Raleigh agtech firm Targan in undisclosed deal

Merck Animal Health’s deal to buy Raleigh-based Targan puts one of Wake County’s more unusual startup success stories in the hands of a global animal-health giant. The sale price was not disclosed, but the acquisition could reshape jobs, investor returns and the future of hardware-heavy life sciences companies growing out of the Triangle.

The companies signed a definitive agreement on June 11 and expect the transaction to close in the third quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approvals and other closing conditions. Merck said it has invested in Targan since 2017 and has been one of the company’s largest shareholders, giving the pharmaceutical company a long-running stake in a business built around poultry science, automation and biotechnology.

Targan’s local footprint is significant. Founded in 2015, the company moved into a 100,000-square-foot former Kroger site on Six Forks Road in September 2023, turning a redeveloped retail property into its Raleigh headquarters and operations hub. The building houses research and development, sales, marketing, leadership and manufacturing under one roof, and the company now says it employs more than 100 people.

Its WingScan system is at the center of the appeal. Targan said the automated chick-sexing platform uses vision technology to identify and sort chicks by gender and can process up to 160,000 chicks per hour. By June 2025, the company said WingScan had processed more than one billion birds globally, with systems already installed across the United States and Canada and more planned for Europe.

For Wake County, the deal is also an exit story. Oval Park Capital, headquartered in North Hills, was among Targan’s earliest backers, and founder Justin Wright-Eakes said the firm invested across multiple funding rounds. Targan had just secured a $100 million growth financing agreement from Symbiotic Capital, with the deal closed in December 2025 and an initial funded tranche of $30 million, before the Merck acquisition was announced in March 2026.

That timing matters because it shows Targan was still expanding. In March, the company also said it was entering Peru through a partnership with Redondos S.A., one of the country’s largest poultry producers, adding to its international footprint ahead of the sale.

The Triangle has long sold itself as a software and research hub, but Targan has been a test of something broader: whether the region can build specialized, engineering-intensive companies that scale, attract national buyers and return capital to local investors. Targan’s 2023 headquarters opening drew Gov. Roy Cooper, Wake County Board Chairwoman Shinica Thomas and Raleigh Mayor Pro Tem Corey Branch, a sign the company had already been cast as a high-value employer. The question now is how much of that base, from leadership to R&D to supplier ties, stays rooted on Six Forks Road as Merck folds Targan into a larger global platform.