Synonym Announces $6.3M Pre-Seed Round for Biomanufacturing Development

Synonym, a financing and development platform for biomanufacturing, has raised a pre-seed round of $6.3 million, led by Andreessen Horowitz, Giant Ventures, Blue Horizon, Siddhi Capital, FJ Labs and Global Founders Capital among others.

Synonym, founded by Joshua Lachter and Edward Shenderovich, is working to develop an “essential infrastructure” for the biomanufacturing industry—creating a network of facilities where its brand partners can produce their biomanufactured products at commercial scale and standardize manufacturing processes.

Farming fermentation

The funding comes as Synonym announced it’s in pre-development phase of its first U.S. facility, a “fermentation farm” that it says can produce large quantities of microbial fermentation products.

Synonym says this facility, along with the network of facilities Synonym aims to build, “will tackle the 1000-fold increase in production capacity needed to meet future demand for biomanufactured products,” the company said.

“Biomanufacturing will be a core driver of 21st-century economic development, akin to how petroleum catalyzed so much of the 20th century’s growth,” Shenderovich, Synonym’s CEO, said in a statement.

“In the last five years, the biomanufacturing ecosystem has exploded, and the products poised to come to market are revolutionary. But they cannot achieve that impact without the means of production at commercial scale and without appropriate forms of financing.”

Biomanufacturing

Biomanufacturing spans several industries including pharmaceuticals, food and beverage, and chemicals. Increasing demand for renewable energy sources is also expected to drive the category.

According to recent data, the global biotechnology industry is expected to reach more than $852 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of nearly ten percent. The Global Food Biotechnology Market size was estimated at $20.36 billion in 2020, and is expected to surpass $35 billion by 2026.

Biofermentaiton specifically shows great promise, according to Research and Markets’ Industrial Biotechnology Market Size, Share, Trends, By Type, By Raw Materials, By Application and By Region Forecast to 2030 report. It says fermentation made up the largest share of the market in 2019, due in large part to the advancements in the food and beverage sector.

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