Sustainable chemicals company Genomatica has raised an additional $45 million.
VantagePoint Venture Partners led the round, joined by Bright Capital, the venture arm of Russia’s RU-COM group, and Waste Management (NYSE: WM). All existing investors also joined the latest round–Alloy Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Mohr Davidow Ventures and TPG Biotech.
The new investment will be used to complete demonstration-scale production and early commercialization plans for Genomatica’s first commercial product, Bio-BDO, a ‘green’ version of 1,4-butanediol (BDO) made from renewable feedstocks rather than oil or natural gas.
BDO, an intermediate chemical with a $4 billion dollar market worldwide, is used to make spandex, automotive plastics, running shoes and more.
Demonstration-scale production aims to validate organisms, processes and manufacturing economics, and allow development of the basic engineering package to be used in construction of Genomatica’s first commercial-scale plant, planned for operation in late 2013.
The investment will also accelerate the development of additional major chemicals in Genomatica’s product pipeline.
Genomatica has developed organisms that use renewable feedstocks to make major chemicals, rather than oil or natural gas.
The latest financing marks another milestone for Genomatica toward full commercialization of its first product, Bio-BDO, which it has been producing at pilot scale in 3,000-liter fermentations since the first half of 2010.
In February, Genomatica signed a strategic agreement with Waste Management to research and advance Genomatica’s technology and manufacturing processes for the production of intermediate and basic chemicals from syngas made from municipal solid waste.
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