Ginkgo Bioworks Inc. is developing live cell therapeutics and cell-based technologies. The company received a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The funding supports development of a novel cell-based technology to improve delivery of protein therapeutics. The work is aimed at improving delivery for patients in low- and middle-income countries. The project targets infectious diseases including HIV and malaria. Ginkgo Bioworks uses a cell programming platform and large-scale automation hardware and software to design and grow biological products across diverse markets, including food, fragrance and pharmaceuticals. The company is deploying resources to build an epidemic monitoring and diagnostic testing facility in its Boston Seaport labs. Ginkgo plans to develop processes that use Illumina’s next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology for large-scale COVID-19 testing, whole genome sequencing and environmental monitoring. It has made its current NGS capacity available at no cost to public health departments across the U.S. Ginkgo says it aims to have NGS-based testing capacity to help reopen schools and businesses and is currently in an early build phase. Jason Kelly is the CEO and co-founder. Ginkgo Bioworks develops a platform for programming cells to grow products rather than manufacture them, targeting consumer goods markets including fragrance, cosmetics, nutrition and food. Led by CEO and co-founder Jason Kelly, the company partners with large industry players to scale applications of its platform. Recent strategic agreements include a $122M deal with Cronos for cultured cannabinoids, a partnership with Roche worth up to $160M to discover antibiotics, and an $80M investment in Synlogic to advance living medicines. Ginkgo has also spun out companies to commercialize applications of its technology, including Motif Foodworks (launched with $117M) and Joyn Bio in 2017. The company intends to use the new funds to further expand the reach of its cell-programming platform. Following this round, total funding for Ginkgo reached $719M. Ginkgo Bioworks develops engineered microbes and serves as an organism-design backbone for customers in consumer goods, agriculture and pharmaceuticals. Its products and work have included yeasts for flavors and fragrances, probiotics developed with DARPA, and bacteria aimed at reducing reliance on chemical fertilizers. The company is building out a Bioworks3 production facility and says the new capital will let it branch into more markets. Last year it entered a $100 million joint venture with Bayer to develop nitrogen‑fixing bacteria for agriculture. Ginkgo has raised significant venture capital since graduating Y Combinator and is exploring an eventual public listing. The company was founded in 2009 and operates out of Boston. Its stated strategy is to design and ship microbes while partners commercialize downstream products. Ginkgo Bioworks is a Boston-based biotech startup that engineers microbes to produce scents, flavors and other products for the flavor, fragrance and food industries. It also works with DARPA on probiotic programs and is exploring expansion into commodity chemicals, industrial enzymes, and human health markets. The company purchased 600 million base pairs of synthetic DNA—the firm says it is the largest synthetic DNA purchase ever—to accelerate testing and product development. Ginkgo will source that DNA from Twist Bioscience and Gen9, with Twist pledging to deliver at least 400 million base pairs by the end of 2017. The startup is finishing a 70,000-square-foot automated facility called Bioworks2 to test designer DNA prototypes and scale new products. Following this round, Ginkgo has raised $154 million in total funding and faces competition from companies such as Zymergen.

Total raised

$789M

Funding rounds

7

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

May 2020