Synthace, the applied synthetic biology company developing high-value chemical and biological products, announces that it has closed a funding round raising £1.3 Million. Sofinnova Partners’ Green Seed Fund led the financing, joined by a syndicate of angel investors.
Synthace is applying its world-leading platform of technologies to rapidly engineer and optimise novel biological systems for the production of speciality chemicals and biological products. Synthace bioengineering is enabled by a tight integration of computational modelling and big data analysis with wet lab experimental design and novel molecular biology tools. The company’s platform is broadly applicable across multiple industry sectors, including chemicals, healthcare, energy and agriculture, and has the potential to create as yet uncharted markets and opportunities.
Tim Fell, CEO of Synthace, commented: “We are delighted to have attracted Sofinnova Partners’ Green Seed Fund and see this funding as a very strong validation of our company, technology and commercial focus. It will allow us to demonstrate production of our first chemical products at scale, prior to forming partnerships within the chemicals industry to take them to market.”
Joško Bobanović, Partner at Sofinnova Partners responsible for the fund, added: “Synthace offers a unique combination of a revolutionary technical platform, entrepreneurial and visionary team, developing advanced products for extremely large markets. Green Seed Fund focuses on European investments in renewable chemistry and has recognised Synthace as one of the leaders in this sector offering, in a way, version 2.0 of synthetic biology application.”
Notes to Editors
Synthace is the UK’s first dedicated synthetic biology company with a world-leading platform of technologies for the rapid engineering and optimisation of novel biological production systems. A spin out of University College London, Synthace harnesses the ability of micro-organisms to produce complex, high-value chemical and biological products from sustainable and renewable feedstocks. In addition to equity funding, the company has received a £500,000 Technology Strategy Board award entitled ‘Rapid Engineering of Cellular Factories’, in collaboration with University College London and University of Manchester. While Synthace bioengineering is broadly applicable across multiple industry sectors, the company is initially focused towards applications in the production of specialty chemicals. More information is available at www.synthace.com
Sofinnova Partners is an independent venture capital firm based in Paris, France. For more than 40 years, the firm has backed nearly 500 companies at different stages of their development – pure creations, spin-offs, as well as turnaround situations – and worked alongside Europe’s key entrepreneurs in the Life Sciences industry. With €1.3 billion of funds under management, Sofinnova Partners has created market leaders with its experienced team and hands-on approach in building portfolio companies through to exit. www.sofinnova.fr
