Zygote Ventures
54 Domingo Ave, Berkeley, CA, 94705, United States
Overview
Zygote Ventures is a privately held seed/angel venture capital fund. Zygote typically invests first, or very early, in innovative enterprises, most often technology, biotech, and agriculture. As a privately held “angel” investor, Zygote Ventures falls somewhere between an entrepreneur and a traditional venture capital fund. Most VC’s are limited partnerships, investing “other people’s money” and earning much of their profit as fees and carry. In contrast, Zygote invests only its principal’s money, and therefore earns no fees, profiting only from an increase in the value of the enterprise. This means that our interests are very closely aligned with the entrepreneur’s. Without limited partners, Zygote can be less risk-averse than most VCs. Because there is no pressure to do a certain number of deals, or to invest a fixed-size fund, Zygote can choose to partner with those opportunities where we can provide real value. At the same time, as an angel investor Zygote is very complementary with more traditional VC, helping to bring a company to readiness for a larger venture round if more capital is required, or co-investing with VCs and/or other angels in cases where we bring value to the enterprise.
- Total investments
- 3
- Lead investments
- 1
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 0
Sector focus
- Finance
- Financial Services
- Venture Capital
Investment portfolio
- NexSteppe
Participated · Series B · Dec 2011
NexSteppe develops tailored crops—notably Palo Alto biomass sorghum and Malibu sweet sorghum—to provide scalable, sustainable feedstocks for the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries. Its sugars and biomass are designed to be processed by biomass boilers, anaerobic digesters and biorefineries into power, first- and second-generation biofuels, plastics and chemical intermediates. The Palo Alto and Malibu product lines are already available to customers in Brazil and the U.S., and DuPont says its collaboration helped NexSteppe achieve its first commercial sales in those markets. NexSteppe plans to use new funding to improve existing product lines, launch additional lines, and expand market development globally. The company positions its crops as bankable, non-food-competing feedstock solutions as commercial-scale cellulosic biorefineries begin operations. NexSteppe is based in South San Francisco, Calif. NexSteppe is a Maliby, CA-based company developing sweet sorghum, high biomass sorghum and switchgrass through plant breeding as sustainable feedstocks for the biofuels, biopower and biobased products industries. Its bred crops are intended to be processed by biorefineries, sugar-to-ethanol mills and coal- or biomass-fired power plants into fuels, power, plastics and cosmetics. Led by founder and CEO Anna Rath, the company focuses on breeding programs to produce varieties suitable for industrial processing. NexSteppe raised $14M in a second round of funding to scale up its sugar and biomass programs and to advance its first products toward commercialization. The financing is intended to support scale-up of breeding and product development efforts. As part of the funding, a Braemar Energy Ventures partner joined the company's board of directors.
- Solazyme
Participated · Series D · Aug 2010
Solazyme is a San Francisco, CA–based developer and supplier of algal oil and bioproducts targeting fuels and chemicals, nutrition, and skin and personal care markets. The company filed an S-1 registration to go public through a $100M initial public offering of its common stock. It intends to list its shares on the Nasdaq Global Market under the symbol “SZYM.” Morgan Stanley and Goldman, Sachs & Co. are acting as lead underwriters for the offering. In the last eighteen months Solazyme received a $21M grant from the U.S. Department of Energy and closed a Series D financing with a range of strategic and venture investors. The article does not disclose revenue or other operating metrics. Solazyme is a South San Francisco-based renewable oil company that uses algal biotechnology and microbial fermentation to produce renewable oils. Its oils are intended for use in scalable fuels, chemicals, nutritional food ingredients and health and wellness products. The company raised $52m in a Series D financing, announced alongside its ongoing development plans. Major existing backers and strategic partners participated in the round. Solazyme also received a $21.8m DOE grant to build its first integrated biorefinery at Cherokee Pharmaceuticals’ commercial biomanufacturing facility in Riverside, PA. The announced financing and grant relate directly to the company’s plans to advance biorefinery construction and commercial-scale production. Solazyme is a South San Francisco, CA-based renewable oil and bioproducts company using algal biotechnology. It develops technology that enables algae to produce oils and biomaterials tailored for biofuel production and as replacements for fossil petroleum and plant oils in products including clean fuels, chemicals, cosmetics and foods. The company received a $21.8M federal grant from the US Department of Energy that will complement significant private investment. Solazyme will use the funds to build its first integrated biorefinery on the site of Cherokee Pharmaceuticals' existing commercial biomanufacturing facility in Riverside, PA. The project is aimed at enhancing national infrastructure investment in biofuels and creating or preserving green jobs. Investors include Braemar Energy Ventures, Harris & Harris Group, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Roda Group and VantagePoint Venture Partners. Solazyme is a Menlo Park company developing ways to use algae to produce biofuels and cosmetic treatments. Its work centers on converting algal biology into commercial fuels and cosmetic ingredients. The company raised $8 million in a second round of funding led by the Roda Group. It also secured more than $2 million in venture debt, bringing the recent financing total to more than $10 million. The funding news was reported by VentureWire and was described as expected. The report named the Roda Group as the lead investor but did not list other participating equity investors.
- GreenWizard
Led · Series A · Apr 2010
GreenWizard offers comprehensive product management software and project collaboration tools for Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) firms. Its platform enables firms to manage products and project data, collaborate on projects, assess LEED design and construction credits, integrate with LEED Online, and archive projects. Led by CEO Adam Bernholz and based in Charleston, South Carolina, the company focuses on simplifying the process of building efficient, healthy, and sustainable construction projects. GreenWizard has received an investment from SCRA Technology Ventures’ SC Launch. The amount and instrument of the investment were not disclosed in the article. The company intends to use the funding to continue to grow. GreenWizard operates a web-based expert system that lets architects, engineers and contractors cross-search, compare and document products for LEED and green commercial construction. The platform enables users to analyze and select green building materials based on a wide array of preferences and inputs, aiming to reduce time and money spent in procurement. The company is based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. GreenWizard closed a $1.15M Series A round of private investment. The round was led by Zygote Ventures, which had also led an earlier angel investment round in the company last year. The company will use the funds to build out and market its software platform.
Team
No current team members are available.