A Truly Impressive Week in SynBio Funding!

A brighter future… built with biology

Hi ,

This week has been a huge week for funding in our industry including leading companies such as Solugen, Spiber, Touchlight, AgBiome, and synthetic biology’s latest unicorn, Mammoth Biosciences. We also bring you the latest episode of our Built with Biology Podcast and a special Spaces show with Leaps by Bayer and Ada Health!

Listen to our podcast

How Can We Welcome Everyone to the Bioeconomy?

All skills and ideas are needed to create a sustainable future. But how do we welcome everyone and inspire the next generation?
Jaye Goldstein of Petri and Natalie Kuldell of BioBuilder share their insights on creating community, supporting women and underrepresented genders, and how we can inspire the next generation on their journey from classroom to founder.

Join today’s live show on Twitter!

Join us today for the Built with Biology show on Twitter Spaces at 8 am PT! Spaces is an audio-only platform—all you need is a Twitter handle and the Twitter app on your phone.

Today’s show welcomes Naveen Krishnan, Senior Director of Venture Investment at Leaps by Bayer, and Daniel Nathrath, Co-Founder and CEO of Ada Health.

Join the show

SynBio in the news:

Mammoth Biosciences raises $195 million to build next-generation CRISPR products in therapeutics and diagnostics
Mammoth is joining the select ranks of “unicorn” startups with a valuation of more than $1 billion!

Touchlight, a biotechnology company pioneering enzymatic DNA production to enable the genetic medicine revolution, announces extension of its fundraising round to a current aggregate total of US $125 million.

Solugen, the company decarbonizing the chemicals industry, announced a Series C financing round of over $350 million. Solugen’s Bioforge processes produce chemicals from bio-based feedstocks and are based on breakthroughs in synthetic biology.

The Ferment Consortium announces the launch of Ayana Bio and Verb Biotics, two new Ginkgo Bioworks platform ventures. Ayana Bio will produce plant and fungal bioactives for herbal medicines and nutraceuticals; Verb Biotics will address market demands for effective probiotics.

Seattle-based Cyrus Biotechnology is entering a protein engineering collaboration with Boston-based Selecta Biosciences that could pull in up to $1.5 billion for the University of Washington spinout.

Funding news:

Congratulations to Ginkgo Bioworks for their $1.633 billion in proceeds, which represents the largest-ever biotechnology go-public transaction!
University of Washington spinout A-Alpha Bio snags $20 million for protein-discovery platform.
Spiber raised $312 million to make plant-based protein polymers through microbial fermentation, which can be spun into animal- and plastic-free fibres for clothing, auto parts and other uses.
AgBiome, developing products from microbial communities, brought in a $116 million Series D round as the company prepares to pad its pipeline with new products.

Have a great week,
Regards,

Fiona Mischel
Editor in Chief, SynBioBeta

Latest news

Biosyntia and Givaudan enter long-term collaboration for sustainable ingredient development (Press release)

Benchling expands into early development market to accelerate delivery of breakthrough products (Press release)

Return of the mammoth? George Church-backed company launches with $15 million for elephant-sized quest (STAT News)

New Agenus subsidiary, SaponiQx, builds innovative adjuvant platform and forms collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks (Press release)

Twist Bioscience inks deal with German Big Pharma worth up to $710 million (San Francisco Business Times)

AbCellera acquires TetraGenetics, enhancing capabilities to generate antibodies against high-value targets (Press release)

Replicate Bioscience looks to replicate RNA's pandemic response success with $40 million to go after cancers, immune disorders (Fierce Biotech)

Clerkenwell Health partners with Danish synthetic biology drug developer Octarine Bio

Riffyn has been recognized as a Representative vendor in the Intelligent Process Development category in the 2021 Gartner Market Guide for Lab Informatics. Along with that, Gartner also has included them in two Gartner Hype Cycle Categories — Bioprocessing Informatics and Enterprise Laboratory Informatics.