Keio’s synthetic silk producer increased its valuation to over $1.2bn in a round led by Carlyle Japan Partners.
Spiber, a Japan-based synthetic biomaterial developer spun out of Keio University, raked in ¥34.4bn ($312m) in funding led by private equity firm Carlyle’s fund Carlyle Japan Partners yesterday.
Fidelity, Cool Japan Fund and Baillie Gifford also participated. The round valued the spinout at more than $1.2bn post-money.
Founded in 2007, Spiber produces synthetic silk and other materials using synthetic proteins with no need for the spiders and silkworms usually required.
The company is looking to capitalise on…
Fernando Moncada Rivera
Fernando Moncada Rivera is a reporter at Global Corporate Venturing and also host of the CVC Unplugged podcast.
