Ginkgo Bioworks
NYSE: DNAalso invests Β· investor profileYC S14YC Top CompanyBoston, US Β· Founded 2009 Β· 641 employees Β· Public Β· Hiring Β· 46 known investors
Ginkgo Bioworks builds autonomous labs and offers cell-programming and bioengineering services for the biopharma, agriculture, and industrial biotech markets. The company operates in the synthetic biology industry, developing engineered organisms and foundry technology for customers across these sectors.
Also known as Ginkgo Β· Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. Β· NYSE: DNA Β· The Organism Company
Founders & leadershipΒ· Y Combinator alumni (S14)
Ginkgo Bioworks was founded in 2009 by Jason Kelly, Austin Che, Tom Knight, Barry Canton, and Reshma Shetty.
Board
Investors Β· 46
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Also in the syndicate Β· 21
The YC applicationΒ· Summer 2014 batch
Ginkgo Bioworks at YC Summer 2014 Demo Day
Y Combinator
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc. is an American biotechnology company headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, founded by five scientists from MIT. It applies genetic engineering and synthetic biology to produce engineered organisms β historically microbes designed to specification β for other companies, allowing customers to avoid reproducing the early stages of synthetic biology design themselves. The company has described itself as "the organism company" and has served markets including food, fragrance, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, industrial biotech, and diagnostics, offering R&D services such as protein engineering, nucleic acid design, and cell-free systems.
The company's current public positioning centers on "autonomous labs": robotic laboratory systems intended to replace manual benchwork, which scientists can direct through natural-language requests. Ginkgo operates an autonomous lab at its Boston headquarters, sells the capability for customers to build their own autonomous labs, and offers a "cloud lab" model in which customers run experiments remotely on the Boston facility. Its customer-facing units include Ginkgo Solutions and Ginkgo Datapoints, which scope and design experiments for open-ended or defined R&D projects, and a product referred to as Catalyst Agent. The company's site states it is trusted by over 130 customers.
Before going public, Ginkgo was among the largest privately held biotech companies and expanded through venture funding, spinouts (Joyn Bio, Motif Foodworks), large industry partnerships, and entry into COVID-19 testing. Since 2021 it has made numerous acquisitions of platform technologies and R&D sites. Reported 2024 financials include $227 million revenue, an operating loss of $560 million, a net loss of $547 million, total assets of $1.38 billion, and 834 employees.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Images
Founder mafia
The Ginkgo Bioworks mafia β7 people who came through Ginkgo Bioworks went on to found or lead other companies.
Competitors Β· 4
by search overlap
Companies competing with Ginkgo Bioworks for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Non-dilutive funding Β· 8 SBIR/STTR awards
Federal grants β no equity taken| Agency | Phase | Year | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| National Science Foundation | Phase I | 2015 | $150K |
| Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency | Phase II | 2014 | $1.8M |
| National Science Foundation | Phase II | 2013 | $500K |
| National Institutes of Health (NIH)National Institutes of Health | Phase I | 2013 | $150K |
| National Science Foundation | Phase I | 2013 | $150K |
| Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency | Phase I | 2012 | $150K |
| National Science Foundation | Phase I | 2011 | $150K |
| National Science Foundation | Phase I | 2009 | $100K |
Source: SBIR.gov award data (U.S. Small Business Administration). SBIR/STTR awards are competitive federal R&D grants and contracts β non-dilutive capital alongside any venture rounds above.
Timeline Β· 26
launches, deals, and filingsGinkgo reported first quarter 2026 financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, completed the divestiture of its Biosecurity business, and reported continued scaling of its autonomous lab.
Reported government contract with the US Department of Energy.
$47M source β
Reported collaboration in which an AI reasoning model with access to robotic labs outperformed existing biochemistry benchmarks by 40 percent.
The former Attorney General of Louisiana launched an investigation into Ginkgo's officers and directors.
Ginkgo acquired France-based adaptive laboratory evolution instruments developer Altar and California-based Circularis to strengthen cell and gene therapy capabilities.
Ginkgo partnered with the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity to build ENDAR (Engineered Nucleotide Detection and Ranking), a software tool to detect genetically engineered organisms as early warning of biological threats.
Ginkgo agreed to acquire Bayer's Biologics Research & Development site in West Sacramento and entered a multi-year platform collaboration with Bayer; the deal included integration of R&D platform assets from Joyn Bio.
$300M source β
Ginkgo acquired assets from real-time metabolite monitoring company Bitome.
Baillie Gifford purchased 167.75 million shares, becoming the largest shareholder with a 15% stake.
Agreement to acquire bioengineering company FGen AG and its ultra-high-throughput screening platform.
Ginkgo was sued in a shareholder lawsuit alleging it misrepresented its revenue sources in statements regarding the SPAC merger.
A market research firm published a report accusing Ginkgo of embellishing revenue via related-party transactions; the report prompted a US Department of Justice inquiry.
Ginkgo Bioworks completed its SPAC merger and began trading on the New York Stock Exchange; the ticker DNA was previously used by Genentech.
Ginkgo announced a merger with SPAC Soaring Eagle at a $17.5 billion valuation.
$17.5B source β
Ginkgo acquired property worth $25 million from Marcus Partners in the Raymond L. Flynn Marine Park for construction of a 219,000 square foot laboratory building.
$25M source β
Series E round with participation from existing major investors and new investors including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, bringing total funding to $719 million.
$290M source β
Ginkgo made an $80 million investment in Synlogic to accelerate development of living medicines.
$80M source β
A $122 million deal with Cronos to produce cultured cannabinoids.
$122M source β
Partnership with Roche worth up to $160 million to discover novel antibiotics.
$160M source β
Partnerships giving early-stage startups access to Ginkgo's platform and mentorship in exchange for equity.
Ginkgo launched its second spinout, Motif Foodworks, focused on alternative proteins, with $117 million in funding.
$117M source β
Ginkgo launched Joyn Bio, a joint venture with Leaps by Bayer, to apply biotechnology to agriculture.
Oversubscribed Series B round led by Viking Global with prior investors OS Fund, Y Combinator and Felicis Ventures; proceeds earmarked for expansion into pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and probiotics and construction of Bioworks 2 foundry.
$45M source β
Ginkgo became the first biotech company admitted to the Y Combinator startup accelerator program.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- Ginkgo Bioworksginkgobioworks.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Ginkgo Bioworks do?
- Publicly traded (NYSE: DNA) synthetic biology company building autonomous labs and cell-programming services for biotech R&D.
- Who founded Ginkgo Bioworks?
- Ginkgo Bioworks was founded by Jason Kelly, Austin Che, Tom Knight, Barry Canton, Reshma Shetty in 2009.
- Who are Ginkgo Bioworks's investors?
- Ginkgo Bioworks's investors include 11.2 Capital, B3 Holding, Cannage Capital, Cool Climate Collective, DCVC (Data Collective), Designer Fund, Draper Associates, Felicis Ventures and 17 more.
- Is Ginkgo Bioworks publicly traded?
- Yes β Ginkgo Bioworks trades on NYSE under the ticker DNA.
- Where is Ginkgo Bioworks headquartered?
- Ginkgo Bioworks is headquartered in Boston, US.