Amyris Biotechnologies Announces $70 Million Funding Round

Emeryville, CA, based Amyris Biotechnologies, an innovator in the development of renewable hydrocarbon biofuels, announced that it closed the first tranche of its $70 million Series B funding. Duff Ackerman & Goodrich Ventures (DAG Ventures) led the financing and was joined by existing Series A investors, including Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and TPG Ventures. The Series B funding will be used to further the development and scale up of its technology for the production of three transportation biofuels: bio-gasoline, bio-diesel, and bio-jet, and to support business initiatives to enable Amyris to bring its biofuels to market as early as 2010. "Amyris has not only a break-through technology but a clearly defined strategy to commercialize a promising slate of next-generation biofuels that could have a profound impact on the transportation market," said R. Thomas Goodrich at DAG Ventures. "Amyris is designing better biofuels from designer bugs" said John Doerr, partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. "This is a big deal because Amyris' cost competitive biofuels will work with existing engines without compromising performance and will have a lower carbon footprint. This financing will help Amyris scale with speed." Amyris expects to close the second tranche of its Series B financing by the end of 2007.