China News Service, Shanghai News, May 6th (Li Qiuying) Recently, Yi Kelai Biotechnology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as " Yi Kelai Biological" or "the company"), obtained a joint venture between Temasek and CMB International. The investment of nearly 300 million yuan in Series C financing further strengthens the company's advantages in the field of synthetic biology and biological intelligence. According to reports, the funds raised in this round will be mainly used for the company's research and development in synthetic biology products and the construction of new production bases.
Synthetic biology has become a new outlet in the investment field and is entering a period of rapid development. McKinsey International Institute (MGI) released the report "Bio Revolution: Innovation Changes Economy, Society and Our Lives" in May 2020. It pointed out that 60% of industrial products in the future can be manufactured by biotechnology, and predicted that based on synthetic biology The bio-intelligent manufacturing of the technological revolution will bring direct economic benefits of 2-4 trillion US dollars to the world every year from 2030 to 2040.
As a bio-intelligent manufacturing enterprise with advanced synthetic biology technology, Yi Kelai Bio is mainly engaged in the research and development of synthetic biology methods and the large-scale production and application of results. It has established a leading-scale biological resource engineering library platform. It has accumulated rich experience in the design and creation of high-performance cell factories and large-scale production of products, and has mature commercial applications in many fields such as medicine, plant protection, animal protection, nutrition, and fine chemicals. For the market where synthetic biology is still at the stage of laboratory research and development, Yikelai's mature industrialization capability and development speed are significantly ahead of domestic and foreign companies.
In order to maintain its advantages in the field of synthetic biology and bio-intelligence, Yi Kelai Biology plans to rapidly increase the construction of software and hardware infrastructure in the short term, focusing on the design and transformation of enzymes, the construction of synthetic pathways and the construction of cell factories. Research and develop key technologies for in-depth planning and construction.Among them, in terms of enzyme design and transformation, the company has an advanced enzyme library containing 20,000+ enzymes and an efficient enzyme design and transformation platform, which can use machine learning to predict and screen enzymes according to the needs of catalytic reactions, and through high-throughput screening and Test for rapid artificial evolution of enzymes. In addition, in the construction of synthetic pathways and cell factories, Yi Kelai Bio has a complete chassis cell library containing 20+ model strains and a gene element library containing 50,000+ elements, and has reserved a large number of high-quality bioengineering resources. The assembly of biosynthetic pathways is directly carried out in cells, and the construction of "smart cell factories" that use genetic elements to drive the synthesis of target molecules. Since its establishment in 2015,
has been favored by many capitals for its capabilities in synthetic biology R&D and industrialization. In addition to Temasek and CMB International introduced this time, Honghui Capital, Huatai Zijin, Binghong Capital, Haifu Zhongbi is also an important investor in the company.
editor: Li Qiuying
