Synthetic Biology Biofuels Company Closes First Tranche of $70M Series B Round

19 September 2007

Amyris Biotechnologies, a synthetic biology company focused on developing renewable hydrocarbon biofuels, has closed the first tranche of its $70 million Series B funding. (Earlier post.)

Amyris Biotechnologies uses synthetic biology techniques to create new metabolic pathways in industrial microbes to produce novel or rare chemicals.

Amyris raised $20 million in a Series A round in 2006, using the new funding to work on producing biofuel molecules. Amyris’ prior primary project had focused on the use of synthetic biology to address supply and cost constraints limiting the use of the anti-malarial drug artemisinin.

Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures (DAG Ventures) led the financing and was joined by existing Series A investors, including Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and TPG Ventures. The Series B funding will be used to further the development and scale up of its technology for the production of three transportation biofuels: bio-gasoline, bio-diesel, and bio-jet, and to support business initiatives to enable Amyris to bring its biofuels to market as early as 2010.

Amyris pioneered a unique technology platform that allows it to use a variety of renewable feedstocks including sugarcane, corn and cellulose, to produce high-value compounds. This technology has been proven in Amyris’ earlier non-profit project, funded through a grant to the Institute for One World Health from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to reduce the production cost of artemisinin-based anti-malarial drugs. Using the same technology platform, Amyris is now developing capabilities to produce a slate of  hydrocarbon transportation biofuels.

Amyris is designing better biofuels from designer bugs. This is a big deal because Amyris' cost competitive biofuels will work with existing engines without compromising performance and will have a lower carbon footprint. This financing will help Amyris scale with speed.

—John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Amyris expects to close the second tranche of its Series B financing by the end of 2007.