Armed with $6.3 million in new pre-seed capital, Synonym Biotechnologies has begun the event section for its first productized bio-manufacturing amenities for non-pharmaceutical functions.
Edward Shenderovich and Joshua Lachter began the corporate in January 2022 to develop, finance and construct commercial-scale bio-manufacturing amenities to offer artificial biology producers of all dimension with versatile manufacturing capability whereas additionally giving infrastructure traders entry to a brand new, carbon-negative bio-manufacturing asset class they’re calling “fermentation farms.”
Andreessen Horowitz, Big Ventures, Blue Horizon, Thia Ventures and different enterprise funds energetic in decarbonization had been a part of the funding.
Shenderovich and Lachter closed on the funding this month and advised TechCrunch through e-mail that the pre-seed spherical “has allowed us to construct an distinctive and well-rounded launch group and set up our product out there.”
“We plan to make use of the capital to catalyze our facility growth efforts,” CEO Shenderovich mentioned. “This implies specializing in hiring throughout our design, engineering and finance groups to put the foundations for our first facility break-ground and speed up our outreach for strategic partnerships throughout the worth chain.”
Synonym is creating each the standardized designs and underwriting requirements for financing its fermentation farms in order that firms will have the ability to simply make the most of them to supply higher high quality bioproducts at decrease prices than current choices. On the investor aspect, the corporate mentioned it’s constructing an underwriting mannequin to offer ESG funding alternatives.
The corporate can also be channeling the U.S. authorities’s current government order on bio-manufacturing that wishes to speed up innovation on this space to satisfy targets round local weather and power targets, meals safety and sustainability and provide chains.
Nevertheless, Shenderovich and Lachter say it will solely be potential if bioproducts, for instance, dairy protein, polymers and resins, attain value parity to legacy merchandise.
And proper now, the infrastructure to correctly scale “doesn’t exist at present” in a manner that allows firms to make the amount on the sort of high quality that may meet future demand. They both need to construct their very own facility — which prices a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} — or depend on contract manufacturing organizations to supply merchandise on their behalf.
“Prices would be the driving issue to adoption and manufacturing prices have prevented them from already getting into provide chains,” Shenderovich mentioned. “The technique of manufacturing for these merchandise will due to this fact be essential, and Synonym’s core perception is that in the case of industrial infrastructure, productization precedes financialization which precedes mass adoption.”
The world contract bio-manufacturing group market, which venture-backed startups like Planetary and Tradition Biosciences are doing, was estimated to be $22.2 billion in 2021 and is predicted to greater than double by 2030.
Lachter mentioned what Planetary is doing is “certainly making an attempt to shut the capability hole in fermentation,” however the place Synonym varies is its method to “focusing extra on productization and financialization of amenities slightly than a extra conventional CMO mannequin.”
The corporate remains to be very a lot within the early phases, with the co-founders saying their most necessary milestone was the launch of the event of its first facility that features web site choice and preliminary design. They anticipate to interrupt floor on the ability within the third quarter of 2023.
This can be adopted up in coming months by additional bulletins on building, structure and different growth companions.
