Artificial Intelligence

Zymergen lands $400 million more for its genetically altered microbes, led by SoftBank Vision Fund

(Techcrunch.com)

If you thought that the development of new manufacturing materials, adhesives, pharmaceuticals and stuff was done by white-coat scientists mixing different chemicals in a laboratory, Zymergen is taking a very different path. The 600-person Bay Area biotechnology company is leading the field in the development of new compounds, from yeasts to plastics to drugs, using genetically engineered microbes, or ‘bugs’ as their CEO calls them.

In fact, Zymgergen cofounder and CEO Joshua Hoffman says one of the biggest opportunities before his now 600-person company is to produce entirely new products that are untethered to traditional petroleum-based manufacturing, which currently underpins nearly everything we use and own, from gas to golf bags, from dishwasher parts to dresses.

As it relates to OLEDs, for example, Hoffman notes that “current petrochemical-derived films don’t work as well as they should. They’re too blue, or they scratch, or they de-laminate and the screen comes apart. The problems are rooted in their core chemistry. But biology gives you whole palette with which to create films, adhesives, and coatings.”

This is game-changing stuff. With Softbank’s very large investment and Zymergen starting to see ‘meaningful revenue’, it’s hard to disagree with early investor Rohit Sharma. “This is easily one of the most promising companies I’ve worked with,” he said. “This isn’t engineering eyeballs or daily active users or manipulating business models. This is innovation on the scale of the way the chemical industry came into existence and grew to $3 trillion plus industry.”

Zymergen also is pushing innovation on the business model front, charging an ongoing a subscription fee for use of the products it develops as well and retains a ‘share of value’ for the products it creates.

Last month we brought former Director of Data Science at Zymergen Shiva Amiri up to Toronto for a panel discussion on AI in healthcare space. Watch the video below for more about how Zymergen uses machine learning to develop new compounds, and the impact of AI on the healthcare space in general.

December 13, 2018 — Richard Switzer