Californian science and material innovators Zymergen secures new funding totalling $300M to accelerate its delivery of its materials. This is one of the largest deep tech investments made in 2020. This capital supports Zymergen’s push into the $3 trillion chemical and materials industries, speeding the manufacture of their Hyaline film, as well as the commercialization of additional products across electronics, agriculture, consumer care and healthcare.
The investment includes initial Series D funding led by Baillie Gifford, joined by Baron Capital Group and one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds, as well as additional growth financing from Perceptive Advisors. A number of current investors are also returning, and Zymergen expects to raise additional capital in Q4 as part of a Series D round.
Zymergen ( @Zymergen ) develops and launches better performing products more sustainably and as they claim for a fraction of the cost and time that it typically takes using incumbent techniques. A combination of biology, chemistry, machine learning and lab automation underpins Zymergen’s proprietary platform, driving the company’s ability to discover, design and commercialize never-before-seen materials.
“Our investment philosophy is to identify companies that can deliver transformational change over the long term,” said Peter Singlehurst, Head of Unlisted Equities at Baillie Gifford. “Zymergen is demonstrating their ability to create products at scale with properties that were previously unimaginable. Their rich and growing product pipeline, coupled with their platform approach, makes this a repeatable process that gets better over time. As long-term investors, we seek out companies with the potential to change industries over decades. Zymergen is such a company.”
The investment announced today helps to bring their Hyaline product to market more quickly, and accelerates Zymergen’s development of all-natural pesticides and other bio-derived crop protection products, as well as a bio-based insect repellent. These product innovations are supported by a powerful platform and technology infrastructure, protected by a strong and growing data set.
“Zymergen is taking the torch from earlier generations of innovators and tackling a huge opportunity to create transformative products with biology,” said Jay Flatley, Chairman of the board at Illumina and Lead Independent Director of Zymergen’s Board. “Zymergen is turning their powerful vision into reality – in the form of real products – and capturing massive new markets that provide value for customers and investors alike.”
“We built Zymergen to make revolutionary hi-performance products that outshine existing materials while dramatically reducing environmental impacts,” said Zymergen CEO Josh Hoffman ( @ZymerJosh ). “This is the right investment for this moment, advancing our transformational long-term vision and bringing real products to market.”
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