Ginkgo Bioworks, a Boston, MA-based organism company, has launched the Ferment Consortium, a $350m private investment vehicle for funding spinout companies with transformative potential in established industries.
The new investment vehicle will support the launch of companies with capital, network of strategic partners, and access to Ginkgo’s platform for cell programming.
The fund is supported by the company’s current major investors, including Viking Global Investors, General Atlantic, and Cascade Investment.
In the past two years, Ginkgo launched Joyn Bio in partnership with Bayer Crop Sciences with $100 million in financing and Motif FoodWorks with $90 million and strategic support from Fonterra and Louis Dreyfus Company.
The Ferment Consortium will enable Ginkgo to replicate more of these successes focusing on enabling spinout companies in mature industries where synthetic biology has been under-utilized but can have a profound impact on a business and its larger ecosystem. Ginkgo and the Ferment Consortium will enable company creation to tackle global problems and find better ways to make things across a number of different industries and applications, such as personal care, medicines, raw materials, and waste recovery. Ferment Consortium’s focus areas will be reflective of the opportunities born out of ever-changing technology, market preferences, and global challenges.
Led by Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder, Ginkgo Bioworks uses biology to grow products instead of manufacturing them. The company’s technology platform is bringing biotechnology into consumer goods markets, enabling fragrance, cosmetics, nutrition, and food companies.
FinSMEs
10/10/2019