Ginkgo Bioworks Raises $9 Million In Series A Funding

What does Ginkgo Bioworks do?

Ginkgo Bioworks, the Boston based startup was founded in 2008 with a mission to make biology easier to engineer. Ginnkgo Bioworks specializes in engineering microbes to produce cultured ingredients such as cosmetics, sweeteners, fragrances, flavors etc.

This organism design company has built the world’s first organism engineering foundry in their 18,000 square feet facility in Boston. The company has an outstanding team which uses the foundry to bring new organisms to customers.

How much Ginkgo Bioworks was funded?

The Boston based startup that works on wild science projects involving bio-organism has raised $9 M in Series A funding from Data Collective,  Felicis Ventures. Vast Ventures, OS Fund and iGlobe Partners

Previous funding

$120 K in Seed round on July 16th, 2014 from China Rock Capital, TEEC Angel Fund, Farzad (Zod) Nazem and Y Combinator

What is next for Ginkgo Bioworks?

Ginkgo Bioworks co founder Jason Kelly said that the raise is a strategic play for Ginkgo. The company is use part of the fund to continue building a new 18,000 square foot facility, Bioworks 1. This is a research lab with 20 robots controlled by special software which helps the company conduct experiments such as turning yeast into rose fragrance.

The new funding will also be used to help further the research before the products are released into the market. It will be used to hire more software developers and sales people as help in starting the construction of Bioworks2, which is an updated lab with next gen robots designed to help the company do more, faster and for less money.

More about Ginkgo Bioworks

Gingko Bioworks was founded in 2008 by Reshma Shetty and Jason Kelly.

It is a part of a big shift in the biotech industry. It is a combo of many improved technologies including software, robotics and other enhancements which allowed the industry to prototype faster with small budgets than before.