Andreessen Horowitz backs Synonym’s bio-manufacturing services

Armed with $6.3 million in new pre-seed capital, Synonym Biotechnologies has begun the event part for its first productized bio-manufacturing services for non-pharmaceutical functions.

Edward Shenderovich and Joshua Lachter began the corporate in January 2022 to develop, finance and construct commercial-scale bio-manufacturing services to supply artificial biology producers of all measurement 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, Giant Ventures, Blue Horizon, Thia Ventures and different enterprise funds lively in decarbonization had been a part of the funding.

Shenderovich and Lachter closed on the funding this month and informed Thealike through electronic mail that the pre-seed spherical “has allowed us to build an exceptional and well-rounded launch team and establish our product in the market.”

“We plan to use the capital to catalyze our facility development efforts,” CEO Shenderovich stated. “This means focusing on hiring across our design, engineering and finance teams to lay the foundations for our first facility break-ground and accelerate our outreach for strategic partnerships across the value chain.”

Synonym is creating each the standardized designs and underwriting requirements for financing its fermentation farms in order that corporations will be capable to simply make the most of them to supply higher high quality bioproducts at decrease prices than present choices. On the investor facet, the corporate stated it’s constructing an underwriting mannequin to supply ESG funding alternatives.

The firm can also be channeling the U.S. authorities’s latest executive order on bio-manufacturing that desires to speed up innovation on this space to satisfy targets round local weather and vitality targets, meals safety and sustainability and provide chains.

However, Shenderovich and Lachter say this may solely be attainable if bioproducts, for instance, dairy protein, polymers and resins, attain value parity to legacy merchandise.

And proper now, the infrastructure to correctly scale “does not exist today” in a manner that allows corporations to make the amount on the sort of high quality that can meet future demand. They both need to construct their very own facility — which prices a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of {dollars} — or depend on contract manufacturing organizations to supply merchandise on their behalf.

“Costs will be the driving factor to adoption and production costs have prevented them from already entering supply chains,” Shenderovich stated. “The means of production for these products will therefore be crucial, and Synonym’s core insight is that when it comes to industrial infrastructure, productization precedes financialization which precedes mass adoption.”

The global contract bio-manufacturing organization market, which venture-backed startups like Planetary and Culture Biosciences are doing, was estimated to be $22.2 billion in 2021 and is predicted to greater than double by 2030.

Lachter stated what Planetary is doing is “indeed trying to close the capacity gap in fermentation,” however the place Synonym varies is its strategy to “focusing more on productization and financialization of facilities rather than a more traditional CMO model.”

The firm continues to be very a lot within the early phases, with the co-founders saying their most vital 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 will probably be adopted up in coming months by additional bulletins on development, structure and different growth companions.