May 20, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Boston-based biotech giant Ginkgo Bioworks (Ginkgo) has agreed to acquire Dutch DNA Biotech B.V., a proprietary tech platform focused on the development of fungal strains and fermentation processes for the production of proteins and organic acids. 

It was only a matter of weeks ago that GAI News shared that Ginkgo was merging with publicly traded special purpose acquisition company Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp and listing on the Nasdaq, giving Ginkgo a value of $15 billion, and providing the company with as much as $2.5 billion in primary proceeds. 

Under the terms of the deal, which will expand Ginkgo’s operations to an international scope for the first time, Ginkgo will acquire 100 percent of Dutch DNA via a combination of cash and equity. Once closed in July, Ginkgo will then integrate Dutch DNA’s team, assets, and operations into its own broader platform for cell programming. 

Based in Utrecht, Netherlands, and founded in 2015 as a management buy-out from the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO), Dutch DNA has deep expertise in filamentous fungi – an important class of microbes that are incredibly efficient and used in a wide range of application from making enzymes in laundry detergents to proteins for foods. Through its platform, Dutch DNA has made unique filamentous fungal host strains that have the potential to be developed into highly efficient products of various proteins and enzymes. 

This ability aligns with Ginkgo’s method of creating custom microbes using robots that was more efficient and less costly compared to the same process being conducted by human scientists, and that enabled the company “to grow products instead of manufacturing them”. Through this technology (“Foundry”) and the knowledge and re-usable biological assets (“Codebase”), Ginkgo has build a scalable engineering and data platform by integrating a spectrum of life sciences tools into their Foundry to amass a large, flexible, and diverse biological Codebase to facilitate innovation.

“Where software platforms lean on a codebase of Software Development Kits (SDKs), you can think of cell programming platforms using Cell Development Kits (CDKs) to enable new applications. Dutch DNA has the most exciting fungal “CDK” we have seen, and their work with filamentous fungi is truly differentiating,” said Jason Kelly, CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks.

“We believe their expertise in developing and engineering these strains, combined with Ginkgo’s automated and high-throughput Foundry, will help us provide best-in-class production hosts to our customers developing protein and enzyme products unlike anything currently available on the market,” Kelly continued.

“This technology could have applications across a wide range of industries, including more efficient and sustainable production of plant-based foods, low-energy laundry detergents, pharmaceutical manufacturing and more.”

Awareness surrounding the potential capabilities of engineered biology are increasingly evident through the development and wide distribution of mRNA vaccines, advances being made in animal-free proteins, and renewable bioplastics. But beyond these examples, cell programing has the potential to have a huge impact on every physical good industry, including food, agriculture, electronics, chemicals, therapeutics, and so on.

This growing awareness has translated to companies across numerous industries using Ginkgo’s cell programming platform to discover more efficient, environmentally friendly ways to create products including food, beauty products, medicines, and more.

Current estimates indicate that companies spend approximately $40 billion each year on R&D that could be supported by Ginkgo’s platform – and McKinsey Global estimated in a recent institute report that the overarching market for bioengineered products (of which Ginkgo could potentially earn a value share) could reach $2 billion to $4 trillion over the coming 10-20 years.

As it stands, Ginkgo expects to generate $150 million in revenue in 2021 – approximately 96 percent growth year-on-year, and the integration of Dutch DNA will play a role. 

“This step creates an amazing opportunity to deploy Dutch DNA’s technology platform in a variety of market segments,” said Art de Boo, founder of Dutch DNA.

“We hope the combination of ‘conventional’ biotechnology with artificial intelligence and high throughput technologies will boost developments significantly. As founders we are extremely proud of our team which proved our technology is compatible with the foundry of Ginkgo,” continued de Boo. “Further we are pleased that our company may serve as a stepping stone for Ginkgo to come to Europe and the Netherlands.”

– Lynda Kiernan is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan@globalaginvesting.com.