SoftBank led the microbe engineering technology company's latest round, bringing its overall funding to $174m in less than 18 months.
Telecommunications and internet group SoftBank led a $130m series B round for US-based biotechnology developer Zymergen today that valued the company at $430m according to Bloomberg.
The round also included venture capital firms Data Collective (DCVC), True Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, DFJ, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures and Tao Capital Partners.
Founded in 2013, Zymergen uses machine learning and robots to engineer microbes more quickly and efficiently. It is working with partners in the agriculture, healthcare, chemicals and materials industries to bring new products to market and improve existing products.
The funding will go towards beefing up the company’s customer support capabilities and increasing its headcount, particularly with regard to its software engineering, automation and biology teams.
Deep Nishar, international managing director at SoftBank Group, will join Zymergen’s board in conjunction with the latest round, as will Steven Chu, the US secretary of energy between 2009 and 2013.
Nishar said: “We are investing in Zymergen because they are a preeminent bioengineering company and the market leader.
“They have a revolutionary approach to engineering biology that is already solving business problems for Fortune 500 customers, and a proven ability to impact the economics of these mature, at-scale businesses.”
DCVC previously led Zymergen’s $44m series A round in June 2015, investing alongside AME Cloud Ventures, DFJ, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures, True Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures and HVF, the data leveraging vehicle set up by PayPal co-founder Max Levchin.
