Ginkgo raises funds, forms partnership

Synthetic biology start-up Ginkgo Bioworks raised $275 million in its fourth round of venture capital funding, led by Viking Global Investors, the Y Combinator Continuity fund, and Bill Gates’s Cascade Investment. Ginkgo will use the money to open its third facility to develop microbes altered with synthetic DNA. Ginkgo sells the microbes to firms that use them to produce flavors, fragrances, and other molecules. Separately, it has a new partnership with Synlogic, a drug discovery firm, to find so-called living medicines to treat neurological and liver disorders.