Ginkgo Bioworks

Ginkgo Bioworks designs and engineers organisms for pharmaceutical, agricultural, industrial and government customers, selling cell engineering as a service from automated laboratories in Boston, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2008 by five MIT scientists: Jason Kelly, Reshma Shetty, Barry Canton, Austin Che and Tom Knight. Kelly is the chief executive. In 2026 the company said it would focus on autonomous laboratory offerings and agreed to sell its biosecurity business.

Ginkgo was the first biotechnology company admitted to Y Combinator, joining the accelerator in 2014. In 2015 it raised $45 million from Viking Global Investors, and a Form D filed with the SEC in July 2015 records that private offering. Wikipedia reports $290 million raised in September 2019 and a further $350 million in October 2019, with a pre-listing valuation of $4.2 billion that year. By 2024 the company's proxy statement listed Baillie Gifford, Cascade Investment, Viking Global Investors and ARK Investment Management among its largest holders.

On May 11, 2021 Ginkgo announced a merger with the SPAC Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp. at a $17.5 billion valuation. Shares began trading on the NYSE under the ticker DNA on September 17, 2021, when TechCrunch put the valuation at $15 billion and expected about $1.6 billion in new capital. The listing was followed by a short seller report in October 2021 alleging revenue embellishment through related party transactions, a shareholder lawsuit and a Department of Justice inquiry. Ginkgo acquired Zymergen for about $300 million in 2022. Revenue reached $227 million in 2024 with a net loss of $547 million, and in August 2024 the company effected a one for forty reverse stock split. For 2025 it reported revenue of $170 million, a net loss of $313 million and $423 million of cash and marketable securities at year end.

For venture investors, Ginkgo shows both the reach of accelerator money and the cost of a peak market exit. Y Combinator and early backers entered when the company was a lab startup, and liquidity arrived about thirteen years after founding through a SPAC rather than a traditional IPO. Holders who did not sell near the 2021 listing saw much of the paper value disappear, as revenue fell and the share count was consolidated forty to one. The company remains public and continues to restructure around its laboratory automation business.