Venture Capital
On Thursday, Silicon Valley-based synthetic biology company Zymergen announced a mammoth funding round of $400 million. It's one of the largest biotech raises in history. With financing from SoftBank Vision Fund and Goldman Sachs, the fresh infusion of cash brings the startup to the forefront of a hot and growing industry based on manufacturing goods with biology. Zymergen doesn't yet have any consumer-facing products, but CEO Joshua Hoffman told Business Insider they're working on their first: a safe insect repellant that he expects to see on the market by 2021.

In this article