Solazyme, Inc., the leading industrial biotechnology company producing renewable oil and bioproducts from microalgae, announced that Bunge Limited (NYSE: BG), a leading global agribusiness and food company, has joined its Series D round as a strategic investor.
The strategic investment represents a foundational step for the two companies to collaborate at critical portions of a new value chain enabled by Solazyme's sugar to oil technology platform. Bunge is one of the world's largest originators and distributors of vegetable oils and one of the largest sugarcane processing companies in Brazil. "Bunge is a world-class organization with enormous expertise and capabilities in many of the markets Solazyme is targeting. Solazyme's technology sits right at the intersection of Bunge's substantial access to sugarcane and its key position in the worldwide natural oils markets. This, along with their operational and logistical capabilities, makes Bunge an ideal strategic investor," said Jonathan Wolfson, CEO and co-founder of Solazyme.
"Solazyme's renewable oil technology sits strategically between our sugar assets and our vegetable oils market presence and is a natural complement to Bunge's businesses. We are excited by the potential to join these capabilities for a variety of bulk and high-value end markets which can add flexibility and margin potential to our core businesses," says Ben Pearcy, Managing Director, Sugar & Bioenergy and Chief Development Officer, Bunge Limited.
Braemer Energy Ventures and Morgan Stanley led Solazyme's Series D round, with all major existing investors from previous rounds participating, including Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Roda Group, Harris and Harris Group, VantagePoint Venture Partners and Zygote Ventures. Existing strategic investors CTTV Investments LLC, the venture capital arm of Chevron Technology Ventures LLC, and San-Ei Gen, a major Japanese manufacturer and distributor of food ingredients, also participated.
Source : Press Release
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