The fund will provide capital for MIT-founded Gingko's own spinouts and has attracted LPs including Viking Global Investors, General Atlantic and Cascade Investment.

Ginkgo Bioworks, a US-based microbe engineering spinout of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, unveiled a $350m investment vehicle called Ferment Consortium yesterday that will finance its spinouts.
Ferment Consortium is funded by Gingko’s “major investors,” the company said, identifying hedge fund manager Viking Global Investors, growth equity firm General Atlantic and investment holding company Cascade Investment as backers.
Founded in 2009, Ginkgo has built a biotechnology platform to grow organisms with industrial applications, spanning areas such as consumer goods, nutrition, cosmetics and fragrances.
Ferment Consortium will aim to build on the success of Ginkgo’s two existing spinouts: microbiome technology producer Joyn Bio and Motif FoodWorks, the alternative proteins developer originally known as Motif Ingredients.
Joyn Bio was established in 2017 in partnership with chemical and life sciences technology group Bayer, which contributed to a $100m series A round through its Leaps by Bayer unit, investing alongside Ginkgo itself and Viking Global.
Motif followed in February 2019 with a $90m series A round backed by merchant firm Louis Dreyfus Company, dairy cooperative Fonterra, Viking Global, Breakthrough Energy Ventures.
The fund will target established industries where  synthetic biology has hitherto been underused, such as personal care, medicines, raw materials and waste recovery.
Portfolio companies will be able to benefit from the expertise of unnamed strategic partners which are set to provide external capital in addition to forming joint ventures with spinouts.
– A version of this article first appeared on our sister site, Global Corporate Venturing.

Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is the former editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and was the producer and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast until December 2024.