Name: Synthetic Biology Company Directory 2026
Creator: synbiointel.com
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Question 1

How many synthetic biology companies are there?

Accepted Answer

As of early 2026, synbiointel.com tracks 55 synthetic biology companies worldwide spanning platform, infrastructure, and investor categories. This includes cell programming platforms (Ginkgo Bioworks), DNA synthesis companies (Twist Bioscience), gene editing therapeutics (CRISPR Therapeutics, Beam, Intellia), precision fermentation companies (Perfect Day, Solugen, LanzaTech), AI+biology companies (EvolutionaryScale, Absci, Cradle), and synbio infrastructure providers (Benchling, Synthace). The actual ecosystem is much larger when including smaller startups and academic spinouts.

Question 2

Which synbio companies are publicly traded?

Accepted Answer

As of 2026, 14 synthetic biology companies tracked by synbiointel.com are publicly traded, including Ginkgo Bioworks (DNA), Twist Bioscience (TWST), CRISPR Therapeutics (CRSP), Beam Therapeutics (BEAM), Intellia Therapeutics (NTLA), Caribou Biosciences (CRBU), Editas Medicine (EDIT), Verve Therapeutics (VERV), Recursion Pharmaceuticals (RXRX), Absci Corporation (ABSI), LanzaTech (LNZA), Senti Biosciences (SNTI), Illumina (ILMN), and Sana Biotechnology (SANA). Many others remain privately held with significant venture backing.

Question 3

Who are Ginkgo Bioworks' competitors?

Accepted Answer

Ginkgo Bioworks operates the largest horizontal cell programming platform in synbio. Its closest competitors depend on the vertical: In cell engineering platforms, competitors include Zymergen (acquired by Ginkgo), Amyris (acquired assets), and Codexis. In therapeutics, Recursion Pharmaceuticals and Absci compete on AI-driven drug discovery. In precision fermentation, Perfect Day, Solugen, and LanzaTech are major players. In AI+biology, EvolutionaryScale, Cradle, and Generate Biomedicines are emerging competitors. Ginkgo's unique position is its horizontal platform model — it programs organisms across multiple verticals rather than specializing in one.

Question 4

What are the most funded synbio companies?

Accepted Answer

The most funded synthetic biology companies as of 2026 are Ginkgo Bioworks ($2.8B+, cell programming platform), Twist Bioscience ($900M+, DNA synthesis), ArsenalBio ($830M+, programmable cell therapy), Perfect Day ($750M+, precision fermentation), Mammoth Biosciences ($600M+, CRISPR diagnostics and therapeutics), Recursion Pharmaceuticals ($600M+, AI-driven drug discovery), and EvolutionaryScale ($540M+, protein language models). The sector attracted approximately $17.3B in venture capital in 2025, with cumulative investment exceeding $70B since 2015.

Question 5

What is synthetic biology?

Accepted Answer

Synthetic biology is the engineering discipline that designs, constructs, and reprograms biological systems — DNA, proteins, cells, and organisms — for useful purposes. It combines principles from biology, engineering, computer science, and chemistry. Key application areas include therapeutics (gene and cell therapies), precision fermentation (producing proteins and chemicals via engineered microbes), agriculture (crop engineering, nitrogen fixation), industrial biotechnology (sustainable materials and chemicals), and AI+biology (using machine learning to design proteins and organisms). Synbio is sometimes called "programming biology."

Question 6

What is precision fermentation?

Accepted Answer

Precision fermentation uses genetically engineered microorganisms (yeast, bacteria, fungi) to produce specific target molecules — proteins, fats, flavors, and chemicals — traditionally derived from animals or petrochemistry. Leading companies include Perfect Day (dairy proteins from fungi), Solugen (industrial chemicals from enzyme-based processes), LanzaTech (ethanol from captured carbon emissions), and MycoWorks (mycelium-based materials). The key industry challenge is achieving cost of goods sold (COGS) parity with conventional production at commercial fermentation scale (50,000L+ bioreactors).

Question 7

Which synbio therapies have FDA approval?

Accepted Answer

The most significant FDA-approved synbio therapy is Casgevy (CRISPR Therapeutics/Vertex), the first CRISPR-based gene therapy, approved in December 2023 for sickle cell disease and transfusion-dependent beta thalassemia. Multiple CAR-T cell therapies built on synthetic biology principles are also approved: Kymriah (Novartis), Yescarta and Tecartus (Kite/Gilead), Breyanzi (BMS), Abecma (BMS), and Carvykti (J&J/Legend). As of 2026, Beam Therapeutics, Intellia, Verve, and Caribou have multiple candidates in Phase 1-2 clinical trials.

Question 8

How is AI changing synthetic biology?

Accepted Answer

AI is transforming synthetic biology through protein language models (EvolutionaryScale ESM-3/ESM-4, Meta ESMFold), generative protein design (Generate Biomedicines, Absci, Cradle), automated lab integration (Emerald Cloud Lab, Strateos), and data-driven strain engineering (Ginkgo Bioworks, Zymergen legacy). AI enables de novo protein design — creating proteins that do not exist in nature — and dramatically accelerates the design-build-test-learn cycle. The convergence of AI and biology is considered the fastest-growing vertical in synbio, with EvolutionaryScale raising $540M for its ESM protein models.

Company	Type	Founded	HQ	CEO	Funding	Headcount	Status
Ginkgo Bioworks	Platform	2008	Boston, MA, USA	Jason Kelly	$2.8B+	1000+	Public
Twist Bioscience	Platform	2013	South San Francisco, CA, USA	Emily Leproust	$900M+	800+	Public
Mammoth Biosciences	Platform	2017	Brisbane, CA, USA	Trevor Martin	$600M+	200+	Private
ArsenalBio	Platform	2019	South San Francisco, CA, USA	Ken Drazan	$830M+	200+	Private
EvolutionaryScale	Platform	2023	New York, NY, USA	Alexander Rives	$142M+	50+	Private
Cradle	Platform	2021	Amsterdam, Netherlands	Stef van Grieken	$103M+	80+	Private
Absci Corporation	Platform	2011	Vancouver, WA, USA	Sean McClain	$500M+	300+	Public
Solugen	Platform	2016	Houston, TX, USA	Gaurab Chakrabarti	$600M+	200+	Private
Perfect Day	Platform	2014	Berkeley, CA, USA	Ryan Pandya	$750M+	200+	Private
LanzaTech	Platform	2005	Skokie, IL, USA	Jennifer Holmgren	$600M+	500+	Public
Pivot Bio	Platform	2010	Berkeley, CA, USA	Karsten Temme	$600M+	300+	Private
Benchling	Platform	2012	San Francisco, CA, USA	Sajith Wickramasekara	$400M+	700+	Private
Synthego	Platform	2012	Redwood City, CA, USA	Paul Dabrowski	$300M+	200+	Private
Generate Biomedicines	Platform	2018	Somerville, MA, USA	Mike Nally	$700M+	300+	Private
bit.bio	Platform	2016	Cambridge, UK	Mark Kotter	$200M+	150+	Private
Arzeda	Platform	2008	Seattle, WA, USA	Alexandre Zanghellini	$70M+	60+	Private
Strand Therapeutics	Platform	2018	Cambridge, MA, USA	Jake Becraft	$200M+	80+	Private
Chroma Medicine	Platform	2021	Cambridge, MA, USA	Catherine Stehman-Breen	$260M+	100+	Private
Caribou Biosciences	Platform	2011	Berkeley, CA, USA	Rachel Haurwitz	$400M+	200+	Public
Tune Therapeutics	Platform	2021	Durham, NC, USA	Fyodor Urnov (co-founder)	$275M+	80+	Private
Bolt Threads	Platform	2009	Emeryville, CA, USA	Dan Widmaier	$500M+	150+	Private
MycoWorks	Platform	2013	Emeryville, CA, USA	Matt Scullin	$200M+	100+	Private
Synonym	Infrastructure	2021	New York, NY, USA	Edward Shenderovich	$50M+	30+	Private
Pow.bio	Infrastructure	2020	Berkeley, CA, USA	Moji Karimi	$30M+	30+	Private
National Resilience	Infrastructure	2020	San Diego, CA, USA	Rahul Singhvi	$2B+	2000+	Private
Inari Agriculture	Platform	2016	Cambridge, MA, USA	Ponsi Trivisvavet	$400M+	200+	Private
Benson Hill	Platform	2012	St. Louis, MO, USA	Deanie Elsner	$500M+	200+	Private
Meatable	Platform	2018	Delft, Netherlands	Krijn de Nood	$100M+	80+	Private
Aleph Farms	Platform	2017	Rehovot, Israel	Didier Toubia	$200M+	150+	Private
Nobell Foods	Platform	2016	San Francisco, CA, USA	Magi Richani	$120M+	50+	Private
Provivi	Platform	2013	Santa Monica, CA, USA	Pedro Coelho	$100M+	80+	Private
Living Carbon	Platform	2019	San Francisco, CA, USA	Maddie Hall	$50M+	40+	Private
Synthace	Platform	2011	London, UK	Markus Gershater	$60M+	80+	Private
Strateos	Platform	2012	San Diego, CA, USA	Mark Fischer	$60M+	100+	Private
Spiber	Platform	2007	Tsuruoka, Yamagata, Japan	Kazuhide Sekiyama	$700M+	300+	Private
Ecovative Design	Platform	2007	Green Island, NY, USA	Eben Bayer	$120M+	150+	Private
Cemvita Factory	Platform	2017	Houston, TX, USA	Moji Adesina	$40M+	50+	Private
Mango Materials	Platform	2010	Redwood City, CA, USA	Molly Morse	$25M+	30+	Private
Volta Labs	Platform	2018	Cambridge, MA, USA	Udayan Umapathi	$50M+	50+	Private
Senti Biosciences	Platform	2016	South San Francisco, CA, USA	Tim Lu	$300M+	100+	Public
Zymergen (acquired by Ginkgo)	Platform	2013	Emeryville, CA, USA (formerly)	N/A (acquired)	$1B+	N/A	Acquired
ARCH Venture Partners	Investor	1986	Chicago, IL, USA	Robert Nelsen (Managing Director)	N/A	50+	Private
DCVC Bio	Investor	2019	San Francisco, CA, USA	Kiersten Stead (Managing Partner)	N/A	20+	Private
Lux Capital	Investor	2000	New York, NY, USA	Josh Wolfe (Managing Partner)	N/A	40+	Private
Khosla Ventures	Investor	2004	Menlo Park, CA, USA	Vinod Khosla (Founder)	N/A	50+	Private
a16z Bio (Andreessen Horowitz)	Investor	2015	Menlo Park, CA, USA	Jorge Conde (General Partner)	N/A	20+	Private
Flagship Pioneering	Investor	2000	Cambridge, MA, USA	Noubar Afeyan (Founder & CEO)	N/A	200+	Private
Recursion Pharmaceuticals	Platform	2013	Salt Lake City, UT, USA	Chris Gibson	$1B+	600+	Public
Illumina	Infrastructure	1998	San Diego, CA, USA	Jacob Thaysen	N/A (public since 2000)	8000+	Public
Beam Therapeutics	Platform	2017	Cambridge, MA, USA	John Evans	$700M+	400+	Public
Intellia Therapeutics	Platform	2014	Cambridge, MA, USA	John Leonard	$1B+	600+	Public
CRISPR Therapeutics	Platform	2013	Zug, Switzerland / Cambridge, MA, USA	Samarth Kulkarni	$1.5B+	800+	Public
Editas Medicine	Platform	2013	Cambridge, MA, USA	Gilmore O'Neill	$700M+	300+	Public
Verve Therapeutics	Platform	2018	Cambridge, MA, USA	Andrew Bellinger	$600M+	200+	Public
Sana Biotechnology	Platform	2018	Seattle, WA, USA	Steve Harr	$1B+	300+	Public

Every Synthetic Biology Company in 2026: The Complete List

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