Synthetic biology has grown over the last two decades to emerge as a mature area in biological engineering with its potential to improve the global food supply and promote precision medicine for better health outcomes. As a result, venture capital (VC) investment in synthetic biology startups has shot up over the last two years. In 2020 and 2021 (as of August), the flow of smart money was more towards therapeutics, followed by food and food ingredients, and gene editing, finds GlobalData, a leading data, and analytics company.

GlobalData’s FutureTech Series report, ‘Engineering Microorganisms into Powerful Micromachines: Can Synthetic Biology Foster Bio Revolution?’, reveals that investors are primarily pumping more money into early-stage biotech startups investigating innovative applications in healthcare and consumer industries.

Sanchari Chatterjee, Disruptive Tech Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Investors are quick to scoop up biotech startups that are leveraging synthetic biology to develop biotherapeutics for COVID-19 vaccines, biomanufacturing alternative proteins, and exploring new oncology-targeted treatments.”

Therapeutics

Massachusetts-based startup ElevateBio’s T-cell biotherapy stems out from the increased appetite of investors towards COVID-19 vaccine research. The technology focuses on gene therapies that eliminate cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 to fight the spread of the virus. In 2020 and 2021, ElevateBio raised $695m from various VCs including Itochu Technology Ventures, Invus Group LLC, and Emerson Collective that are focused on accelerating R&D and scaling manufacturing capabilities.

Food and food ingredients

California-based startup Impossible Foods develops plant-based meats to substitute emission-intensive livestock farming. Its heme ingredient is made using genetically engineered yeast into which soy DNA is inserted. Impossible Foods obtained $700m financing in 2020 and 2021 from notable investors including Mirae Asset Global Investments Co Ltd, Temasek Holdings (Private) Ltd, and Coatue Management LLC to complete the commercialization of its Impossible Sausage Made From Plants and Impossible Pork Made From Plants.

Gene-editing

Resilience, a California-based biopharmaceutical startup, was the most funded synthetic biology company in 2020, backed by $750m from investors such as New Enterprise Associates Inc, 8VC, ARCH Venture Partners LP. The startup has been using its funding to empower its research in gene-editing tools, supported by machine learning to study anti-cancer treatment and designing viral vectors for COVID-19 vaccines.

Chatterjee concludes: “The VC money in synthetic biology is likely to grow in the future as investors will be increasingly interested to unlock the technology’s potential to cater to the diverse needs such as precision medicine for better health outcomes, promoting sustainability with meat substitutes, and curing life-threatening diseases using gene-editing techniques.”