Zymergen, a developer of biomanufacturing technologies that could reshape any number of industries, said it has raised $300 million in funding.
The investment, announced on Tuesday, was led by Baillie Gifford & Co., the U.K.-based funds giant, with participation from Baron Capital Inc. and a sovereign wealth fund that declined to be identified, said Josh Hoffman, Zymergen’s chief executive officer and co-founder. Other investors included existing backers DCVC, True Ventures and SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund.
This infusion of capital powers Zymergen’s charge into the $3 trillion chemical and materials industries, speeding the manufacture of their groundbreaking Hyaline film, as well as the commercialization of additional breakthrough products across electronics, agriculture, consumer care and healthcare.
Zymergen has partnered with companies like Sumitomo, the Japanese chemical conglomerate, and FMC, a U.S.-based pesticide and agricultural products developer, to bring its novel biologically-based chemicals to market.
“We built Zymergen to make revolutionary high-performance products that outshine existing materials while dramatically reducing environmental impacts from manufacturing, transportation and more,” said Zymergen CEO Josh Hoffman. “This is the right investment for this moment, advancing our transformational long-term vision and bringing real products to market.”
Zymergen’s technology works by manipulating the genetics of microbes. The startup’s scientists run the microbes through hundreds of thousands or even millions of tests, and use machine learning to see which result yields the most promising outcome. Once the scientists design the ideal microbe, they get the microbes to produce molecules via fermentation. Those molecules become part of the animal feed, industrial coating, or whatever the final material the company is developing.