LG Technology Ventures Makes Strategic Investment in Lygos

BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Lygos, Inc., a biotechnology-based producer of specialty chemicals that deliver high-value performance without environmental toxicity, today announced that LG Technology Ventures, an investment arm of the South Korean conglomerate LG Group, has made a $5 million investment in its oversubscribed Series B financing round. Lygos has raised more than $41 million in equity financing, and over $10 million in non-equity government funding (US Departments of Energy and Agriculture and National Science Foundation).

“LG Technology Ventures’ investment further extends our global reach and validates our potential to transform large-scale industries such as consumer electronics, which have been completely reliant on unsustainable, toxic and costly petrotechnology production processes up until now,” said Eric Steen, PhD, CEO of Lygos. “We look forward to working together with the team at LG Technology Ventures to replace many of these harmful manufacturing and packaging processes with more sustainable specialty bio-based solutions that enable better, safer and more affordable consumer electronics.”

Lygos’ proprietary platform is based on a high-throughput combination of computational modeling, unique microbe engineering and screening, combined with machine learning to identify and develop new bio-routes to chemicals. Lygos uses modern biotechnology to deliver the benefits of petroleum-based and other industrial chemical technology at competitive prices. Lygos also develops new bio-routes to chemical functionalities uniquely available through biotechnology to expand the performance window in diverse materials systems. Lygos’ customers seek sustainable cost-efficient solutions enabled by biotechnology for applications where industrial chemistry uses expensive, environmentally degrading options or has none to offer.

About LG Technology Ventures

LG Technology Ventures was established in 2018 and is the venture capital investment arm of the LG Group of South Korea. The LG Technology Ventures team consists of experienced investors, entrepreneurs, technologists, and industry domain experts. Currently, LG Technology Ventures is managing over $400 million of fund assets and invests in early-stage information technology, automotive, manufacturing, life-sciences, energy, and advanced materials companies. We strive to create value to our portfolio companies by helping them develop strategic partnerships with various LG Companies.

About Lygos

Lygos has created a full-stack biological engineering platform focused on organic acid specialty chemicals and bio-monomers. Lygos’ sustainable, bio-based chemicals replace expensive, environmentally degrading alternatives from traditional industrial suppliers, enabling customers to create better, safer products with value-added performance. For more information, visit www.lygos.com and follow us @LygosBiotech.

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