The Yeast Kings: Amyris rises, and raises a lot of dough
Last year, readers and the international selectors of the 50 Hottest Companies in Bioenergy tapped Amyris Biotechnologies at #3 globally, and the company has not disappointed its many fans in the months since.
Amyris applies synthetic biology to alter the metabolic pathways of microorganisms to engineer “living factories” that transform sugar into any one of 50,000 different molecules used in a wide variety of energy, pharmaceutical and chemical applications. Amyris has proven this technology through the delivery of artemisinin, a low cost anti-malarial drug. The company expects to produce drop-in, renewable diesel, renewable jet fuel, and renewable chemicals for consumer products and industrial applications currently dependent on petrochemicals.
$244 million raised, and counting
Yesterday, Amyris announced that Singapore-based Temasek Holdings has invested $47.8 million into the company. The company has now raised $244 million in private funding since inception in 2003 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Khosla Ventures, TPG Biotechnology, Votorantim Novos Negocios, Advanced Equities Inc., DAG Ventures, Grupo Cornélio Brennand, Naxos U.K., The Westly Group, and Stratus Group.
$244 million in private equity is “capital heavy” in comparison to the industry as a whole, but it is the company’s “capital-light” agreements that have been gaining traction. In these arrangements, Amyris provides technology and plant design and mill owners contribute capital to convert their mills to produce Amyris renewable products.
Moving into Brazil
Of late, the strategy has been paying off in Brazil, where the company has been becoming deeply integrated in Brazil, especially since it acquired a a 40% stake in the Boa Vista mill, an ethanol-producing mill owned and operated by the São Martinho Group. When that deal was announced in December, which would convert the mill to produce Amyris renewable products commencing with the 2011-2012 harvest season, it was clear that Amyris had focused on low-cost sugar cane as the primary source of its feedstock from the near-term. An R&D partnership inked with the University of Queensland signed to explore the conversion of Australian sugar cane into renewable jet fuel, confirmed sugar cane as the feedstock of the hour. Under that agreement, the Australian Institute for Bioengineering & Nanotechnology will collaborate on synthetic biology that will develop yeast cells to convert sucrose into fuels for the sustainable aviation movement.
In February, Stratus Group announced that it will invest $5.4 million in a Brazilian subsidiary of Amyris Biotechnologies through the Stratus Cleantech funds., The funding will be applied towards a $75 million investment by Amyris in the Bioa Vista sugar mill, where the company will deploy its advanced synthetic biology to produce renewable gasoline renewable diesel and renewable jet fuel from sugarcane.
In December, Amyris Biotechnologies announced that its subsidiary Amyris Brasil signed partnership LOIs with Bunge, Cosan, and Açúcar Guarani to develop renewable specialty chemicals and fuels from sugarcane. The products will be distributed by Amyris. The letter of intent agreements with Bunge, Cosan and Guarani should cover Amyris’s planned production through 2013-2014. Combined with the Boa Vista mill, this results in a combined crushing capacity of over 12 million tons, and a potential capacity of up to 26 Mgy of renewable diesel fuel. Amyris said that it will invest up to $200 million in the project.
$25 million DOE Grant winner
Also in December, Amyris landed one of the $25 million DOE Intergrated Biorefinery grants, for a $35 million Emeryville, California-based project to produce a diesel substitute through the fermentation of sweet sorghum. The pilot plant will also have the capacity to co-produce lubricants, polymers, and other petro-chemical substitutes.
Test flights
In November, Embraer and General Electric announced that they will conduct a test flight using renewable jet fuel produced from sugar cane by Amyris Biotechnologies. The test flight will be operated by Azul Linhas Aereas and will be conducted in 2012. The Azul Airlines (CF-34 – powered) ERJ-190/-195 will use sugarcane as a feedstock. “That initiative has the enthusiastic support of Azul’s founder and CEO David Neeleman and the Brazilian Government,” says Tom Casey of ACA Associates, “especially as the demonstration involves an Embraer commercial airplane, flying with a Brazilian airline and using a Brazil-sourced bio jet fuel from sugarcane feedstock.” Casey added that the Jatropha Biokerosene Initiative (“ABPPM”) is also getting quite active with that feedstock, and that Brazil recently proposed legislation in their Congress to form a “CAAFI – like” agency to consolidate alternative bio jet fuel development support functions.
Series C Round
In October, Greentech Media reported that Amyris Biotechnologies received new investment from GrupoCornelioBrennand in Brazil and Naxos in the United Kingdom, among other investors in the round, bringing its Series C round of investment up to $41.75 million to date. The company had set a goal of raising up to $62 million in the round, without disclosing a closing date for investment. Investors from earlier rounds — including Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, TPG Biotech and Votorantim Novos Negocios — also have participated in Series C.
More on Amyris strategy
The Digest has run several columns in its Bioenergy PROFITS Principles series, examining Amyris in detail. Here’s Dr. Rosalie Lober’s take on Amyris in “Don’t stop at the finish line”. Here’s another look at Amyris in: “Success = Integrating Your Supply Chain.“
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