Bill Gates backs Gink­go Biowork­s' $350M raise to fu­el the buzzy syn­thet­ic bi­ol­o­gy 'rev­o­lu­tion'

If you want to un­der­stand Gink­go Bioworks, the name should suf­fice: Bioworks, a spin off “iron­works,” that old in­dus­tri­al linch­pin de­vot­ed to lever­ag­ing scale as a well­spring for vast new in­dus­tries ca­pa­ble of re­mak­ing so­ci­ety. Gink­go wants to be the iron­works for the rev­o­lu­tion it’s her­ald­ed with as much fan­fare as they can, play­ing off of one of the buzzi­est tech­nolo­gies in biotech.

On Wednes­day, they raised $350 mil­lion for a new project to ad­vance that goal, Reuters re­ports.  The new “Fer­ment Fund” will be used to in­vest in spin­outs that bring its bio­engi­neer­ing tech­nol­o­gy to in­dus­tries just be­gin­ning to em­brace the lat­est de­vel­op­ments in bi­ol­o­gy. The fund will re­port­ed­ly in­vest in two to three com­pa­nies each year.

Unlock this article instantly by becoming a free subscriber.

You’ll get access to free articles each month, plus you can customize what newsletters get delivered to your inbox each week, including breaking news.

SIGN UP LOG IN BECOME A PREMIUM SUBSCRIBER