NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – Organism design company Ginkgo Bioworks announced today that it has acquired DNA synthesis firm Gen9.
Through the acquisition, Ginkgo has picked up Gen9's manufacturing platform and suite of proprietary technologies, software, and informatics tools for DNA synthesis and assembly, as well as its intellectual property portfolio of more than 125 patents and patent applications. Ginkgo added that it will also retain Gen9's operations and R&D teams.
Additional terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Ginkgo has been our largest customer in recent years, and we're thrilled to join forces and together forge a new trajectory for bringing the benefits of synthetic DNA to a wide range of industries," Gen9 President and CEO Kevin Munnelly said in a statement.
Ginkgo Co-founder and CEO Jason Kelly added that Gen9's synthesis and assembly technology is expected to help accelerate Ginkgo's organism design process. "We are seeing interest from a broad range of companies looking to use cultured ingredients to make their products in a more efficient and more sustainable way," he said. "Having more direct, immediate access to the building blocks primarily for our internal use will allow us to continue to push the envelope of what is possible in biotechnology."
Ginkgo's acquisition of Gen9 comes about eight months after it closed a $100 million Series C financing round.