Solvay announces strategic collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks and expands its R&I footprint in the United States
April 04 2023 - 7:00AM
Solvay announces strategic collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks and
expands its R&I footprint in the United States
Solvay announces strategic collaboration
with Ginkgo Bioworks and expands
its R&I footprint in the United
States
The investment will accelerate the development
of new sustainable biopolymers, strengthening Solvay’s position in
biotechnology in this important growth platform.
Brussels, Belgium and Boston, MA, U.S. - April
4, 2023
Solvay, a leading science and materials company
whose technologies bring benefits to many aspects of daily life,
today announced a strategic collaboration with Ginkgo Bioworks
(NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell
programming and biosecurity. Through this multi-year strategic
collaboration agreement, Solvay will join forces with Ginkgo to
unlock the power of synthetic biology as an enabler of more
sustainable chemicals and materials, contributing to the transition
towards more environmentally-friendly solutions. This alliance will
start by focusing on new sustainable biopolymers, specialties which
could tangibly impact a breadth of markets, from home and personal
care to agriculture and food.
As part of this partnership, Solvay will also
acquire a Ginkgo (formerly Zymergen) laboratory in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. This acquisition will expand Solvay’s R&I
footprint in the US, provide access to new talents, and establish a
sustainable growth base in synthetic biology in one the most
important biotech hubs in the world, accelerating the company’s
biotech development plan.
With this strategic collaboration and expansion,
Solvay will integrate deep competencies in bioinformatics / data
science, strain engineering, biocatalysis and fermentation
processes, strengthening and accelerating the ability to scout,
develop and turn into businesses the most valuable biotech-enabled
opportunities.
This partnership is designed to strengthen
Solvay’s position in biotechnology as part of the Renewable
Materials and Biotechnology growth platform which aims to meet
growing demand for sustainable solutions by increasing the share of
renewable carbon in Solvay’s product offering and developing new
business opportunities enabled by biotechnology. This growth
platform complements the company’s activities in three other key
areas: battery materials, green hydrogen and thermoplastic
composites.
“We’re thrilled to make this important
investment and to partner with Ginkgo Bioworks on an exciting
project to develop sustainable chemicals and materials, allowing us
to provide innovative biotechnologies to new markets,” said Solvay
CEO Ilham Kadri. “Biotech is the future and this step is an
important milestone for our growth platform. We expect to leverage
our new presence in the Boston area to step up and accelerate our
offerings in this field.”
“We’re so excited to welcome Solvay to our
platform and to the Boston area at such a pivotal growth period for
both of our companies. In our case, it's fantastic to be able to
integrate platform capabilities from Zymergen and make them
accessible to our partners so quickly” said Jason Kelly, CEO and
co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks, “Synthetic biology can help
companies across a wide breadth of markets reach their
environmental and economic goals at the same time, and it’s
thrilling to work with a partner taking such a big swing at
sustainability.”
About Solvay
Solvay is a science company whose technologies
bring benefits to many aspects of daily life. With more than 22,000
employees in 61 countries, Solvay bonds people, ideas and elements
to reinvent progress. The Group seeks to create sustainable shared
value for all, notably through its Solvay One Planet roadmap
crafted around three pillars: protecting the climate, preserving
resources and fostering a better life. The Group’s innovative
solutions contribute to safer, cleaner, and more sustainable
products found in homes, food and consumer goods, planes, cars,
batteries, smart devices, health care applications, water and air
purification systems. Founded in 1863, Solvay today ranks among the
world’s top three companies for the vast majority of its activities
and delivered net sales of €13.4 billion in 2022. Solvay is listed
on Euronext Brussels and Paris (SOLB). Learn more at
www.solvay.com.
About Solvay’s Renewable Materials and
Biotechnology platform
This investment is a key part of Solvay’s
Renewable Materials and Biotechnology growth platform strategy. The
platform focuses on developing innovative and sustainable solutions
using renewable feedstocks and biotechnology. It aims to meet
growing demand for sustainable solutions by increasing the share of
sustainable renewable carbon in Solvay’s product offering and
developing new business opportunities enabled by biotechnology. The
platform’s ambition relies on a holistic innovation approach with 3
interconnected pillars: sustainable renewable carbon, biotechnology
and end-of-life management. It follows the establishment of the
Group’s growth platforms in batteries, green hydrogen and
thermoplastic composites.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal
platform for cell programming, providing flexible, end-to-end
services that solve challenges for organizations across diverse
markets, from food and agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial
and specialty chemicals. Ginkgo’s biosecurity and public health
unit, Concentric by Ginkgo, is building global infrastructure for
biosecurity to empower governments, communities, and public health
leaders to prevent, detect and respond to a wide variety of
biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com
and concentricbyginkgo.com, read our blog, or follow us on social
media channels such as Twitter (@Ginkgo and @ConcentricByGBW),
Instagram (@GinkgoBioworks and @ConcentricByGinkgo), or
LinkedIn.
Contacts
Media
relationsLaetitia Van
Minnenbruggen+32 484 65 30 47
Kim Jordan+1 346 268 2677
media.relations@solvay.com |
Investor
relationsJodi Allen+1 609 860 4608
Geoffroy d’Oultremont+32 2 264
2997 Bisser Alexandrov+32
2 264 3687 Valérie-Anne
Barriat+32 476 841 177
Alex Sokolowski+32 2 264 1168
investor.relations@solvay.com |
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