Illumina, General Atlantic and Viking Global have supplied $70m for Ginkgo Bioworks, an MIT spinout that has now raised more than $789m altogether.
Ginkgo Bioworks, a US-based microbe engineering services spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has received $70m in funding from genomics technology producer Illumina, growth equity firm General Atlantic and hedge fund manager Viking Global Investors.
Founded in 2009, Ginkgo has developed cell programming technology that is capable of growing organisms for industrial applications such as nutritional products, consumer goods and fragrances.
Gingko has itself established a series of spinoffs including microbiome technology producer Joyn Bio and alternative protein developer Motif FoodWorks. It formed a $350m investment vehicle, Ferment Consortium, in October 2019 to form additional subsidiaries.
The company will use the latest cash injection to build the infrastructure required for large-scale testing of Covid-19. It will exploit its existing automation capabilities and partner Illumina, which is providing access to its whole genome sequencing and environmental monitoring technologies.
Illumina and Ginkgo expect to be…
Thierry Heles
Thierry Heles is the editor of Global University Venturing, host of the Beyond the Breakthrough interview podcast and responsible for the monthly GUV Gazette (sign up here for free).
