Ginkgo Bioworks

What we do: Ginkgo Bioworks speeds up the process of genetically engineering and growing ingredients. We’ve built the first foundry for flexible industrialized organism engineering to develop a wide range of organisms for different markets. Integrating advanced software, robots and biology allow us to rapidly design, build, and test organisms until they meet our specifications.

Why it's a big deal: Ginkgo led an $8M DOE project to engineer microbes that utilize single-carbon molecules. This technology is being used to capture natural gas being flared in North Dakota, and it could eventually lead to microbes converting these single-carbon compounds into fuel.

Clearly, genetic engineering has immense potential to shape the future of this planet. Nature's biodiversity holds answers to challenges in health, energy, food, materials, and more. Ginkgo engineers develop new organisms that replace technology with biology, leading to 50% reductions in production costs for their clients. With contracts already signed for $10M in annual royalties, it's no wonder Ginkgo was able to pull in $9M from Series A financing. Ginkgo is expanding the role of biology in our world, uniting the creative aspects of biology and technology.

• Contracts signed for $10 million in annual royalties
• Reduce production costs for customers by 50%
• Grow ingredients in about 10 days
• 15 PhD’s and two MIT professors on staff
• Raised $9 Million in Series A Financing
• First biotech startup to go through Y Combinator