Spider Silk Start-ups Lure Investors

Emeryville, Calif.-based start-up Bolt Threads, developer of a yeast-based fermentation process to make synthetic spider silk fiber, has raised $32.3 million in a second round of venture capital funding. “Our technology combines biology and computational methods to create performance fibers with carefully crafted properties,” says CEO Dan Widmaier. Separately, Lansing, Mich.-based Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, a start-up making spider silk from genetically engineered silkworms, has raised $7.5 million to support its R&D and manufacturing activities. In addition, Kraig Biocraft has extended an R&D agreement with the University of Notre Dame to improve its transgenic silkworm technology to make “stronger and more flexible fibers,” the firm says. Both start-ups are targeting their products at textile applications.