Top 10 Bioeconomy Markets and Predictions for 2019

5. Strain optimization

In the competition between ZYmergen and Ginkgo BioWorks to vacuum up every venture-backed dollar in the bioeconomy Zymergen had the latest salvo. In California, Zymergen has raised over $400 million in Series C funding led by returning investor SoftBank Vision Fund. The round welcomes new investors Goldman Sachs and Hanwha Asset Management, as well as returning investors, DCVC (Data Collective), True Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, DFJ and Innovation Endeavors.

The amount is believed to be the largest single-round capital raise in the history of industrial biotechnology, and exceeds the haul from most sector IPOs.

Specifically, Zymergen works on strain development — engineering strains for partners, or creating new ones — as they say, “working across microbes, products and traits”. To achieve its results, Zymergen uses artificial intelligence algorithms and robotic genomic “factories” to search the microbial genome, running tens of thousands of experiments to spot subtle signals of improvement.

It’s been a renaissance of strain optimization, development, and microbial transformation. The advent of gene editing tools will only accelerate the big, big trend.