Ginkgo Bioworks Raises $275M in Series D Funding to Support the Launch of New Organism Foundry

Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston, MA-based organism company, raised $275m in Series D funding round.

The round, which brings the company’s total funding to $429m, will support Bioworks3, the third foundry for prototyping and scaling engineered organisms.

Backers included Viking Global, Y Combinator’s Continuity Fund, and Cascade Investment, the private investment vehicle of William H. Gates III, as well as new investor General Atlantic.

The new foundry and funding will be used to accelerate Ginkgo’s expansions into new markets and scale existing projects. Bioworks3 will focus on bringing biology to new markets including pharmaceuticals, agriculture and textiles, and on accelerating the timeline for bringing current projects to commercial scale.

Led by Jason Kelly, CEO, Ginkgo Bioworks designs and prints DNA. With the tools in its foundries, the company can design the living code to build custom microorganisms with lower environmental impact and waste for customers in a wide range of industries including pharmaceuticals, consumer goods, consumer electronics, cosmetics, nutrition, food, agriculture, medicine, etc.
Ginkgo’s foundries leverage advanced technology to automate the manual processes typically required in organism design. The space and technology afforded by Bioworks3 is expected to further accelerate the company’s ability to bring designs to scale, and support work on its first activities into agriculture through a $100M joint venture with Bayer.

FinSMEs

14/12/2017

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