US-based waste management technology developer Allonnia had launched with $40m from a series A round that included industrial engineering technology producer Ginkgo Bioworks.
Research and development organisation Battelle, growth equity firm General Atlantic, investment holding company Cascade Investment and hedge fund manager Viking Global Investors also participated in the round.
Allonnia is developing bioremediation technology that will use enzymes, proteins and microbes to degrade or metabolise contaminants in waste so that other materials can be extracted and recycled.
The startup was incubated within Ferment Consortium, the $350m investment vehicle Ginkgo Bioworks launched in October 2019 with backing from General Atlantic, Cascade Investment and Viking Global, all of which are also investors in Ginkgo itself.
Jason Kelly, Ginkgo Bioworks’ co-founder and CEO, said: “As one of biology’s fundamental roles in nature is to break things down, there is a huge diversity of microbes and enzymes that can clean up waste. This application of biology represents both an enormous market and a worldwide environmental challenge.”
Ginkgo as now spun off three companies altogether, the other two being alternative protein developer Motif Ingredients and agricultural microbe developer Joyn Bio, the latter as a joint venture with agribusiness Bayer.
