BOSTON, Sept. 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo
Bioworks ("Ginkgo"), which is building the leading horizontal
platform for cell programming, today announced the launch of Verb
Biotics ("Verb"), a probiotics innovation company that will
identify and design new strains of probiotic bacteria with advanced
properties for human nutrition, health, and wellness. Ginkgo, which
recently announced a business combination with Soaring Eagle
Acquisition Corp. (Nasdaq: SRNG), has successfully launched several
new companies across a variety of end-markets, bringing together
funding from strategic and financial investors. The Ferment
Consortium, a company creation studio that works with Viking Global
Investors and Cascade Investment, both of whom are providing
capital to Verb, was created to help ideate and launch new
companies that use cell programming to support human and
environmental health and well-being.
The probiotics category is a $50B
global industry that's growing rapidly. As awareness and
understanding of the microbiome—the trillions of bacteria that live
in the human body—has grown over the past decade, there has been
tremendous interest in probiotic enhanced foods, beverages and
supplement products as part of lifestyle regimens that reduce
chronic disease and improve wellness. These products have used
strains of bacteria common to yogurt and other fermented products.
However, there are a number of product development challenges
involved, including limited shelf life and stability, and the need
to identify strains with more specific metabolic profiles.
"The probiotics industry has been in an era of partial
understanding that has struggled with a need for more mechanistic
understanding of how probiotics impact health," said Mike Bush, Verb advisor and Executive Board
Member of the International Probiotics Association. "Ginkgo has a
suite of robust tools that will enable this new company to
transform the paradigm for probiotics in the supplement and food
markets."
"Verb will be using microbes as a way to deliver beneficial
molecules into the gut or to 'bio-transform' food substrates into
substances our body needs. People are not getting what they can
from their food and, for a variety of reasons, we absorb a fraction
of the available nutrients in our diet," said Todd Beckman, Verb advisor and former founder of
probiotic company Goodbelly Probiotics. "Gut microbiome
science repeatedly points to the population of microbes in the gut
as a major actor in many aspects of wellness, from actual ability
to extract nutrients, to secreting neurotransmitters that affect
mood, satiety/obesity, immune system function and more."
Ginkgo has significant expertise in the discovery and design of
microbes for a wide array of functions. Verb Biotics plans to
leverage Ginkgo's high-throughput platform to perform sequencing,
proteomics and metabolomics analysis, pathway design, cell
culturing, and fermentation to improve the design and development
of probiotics. Verb joins other Ginkgo Bioworks Platform Ventures
such as Joyn Bio, Motif FoodWorks,
Allonnia, and Ayana Bio. Motif
FoodWorks recently raised a $226
million Series B round led by Ontario Teachers Pension Plan
and BlackRock.
"We are really happy to be able to build on our microbial
codebase and add to our deep capabilities that will help nutrition
and food players diversify their probiotic solutions across the
consumer space," said Jason Kelly,
CEO of Ginkgo. "Together, we hope Ginkgo and Verb can unlock the
benefits of gut microbes with precision and specificity to truly
deliver on the promise of microbes for human health."
Verb is launching with $30 million
in Series A funding provided by Viking Global Investors and Cascade
Investment.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to
enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program
computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology
applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to
industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively
supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12
pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization and therapeutics
discovery. In May 2021, Ginkgo
announced a business combination with Soaring Eagle Acquisition
Corp. (Nasdaq: SRNG), which, if completed, will result in Ginkgo,
through a parent entity, Ginkgo Bioworks Holdings, Inc., becoming a
public company. The extraordinary general meeting of Soaring
Eagle's shareholders in connection with the transaction has been
scheduled for September 14, 2021 and
the transaction is expected to close shortly thereafter, subject to
customary closing conditions. For more information, visit
www.ginkgobioworks.com.
About Verb Biotics
Verb is a probiotics innovation
company that identifies and designs new probiotic bacteria with
advanced properties for human nutrition, health, and wellness. We
use Ginkgo Bioworks' cell engineering platform with the goal of
improving overall human health through probiotics technology that
provides consumers a positive "I feel the effect"
experience. Please visit www.verbbiotics.com for more
information.
MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
Additional Legal Information
Forward-Looking Statements Legend
This document
contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of
the federal securities laws with respect to the proposed
transaction between Ginkgo and Soaring Eagle, including statements
regarding the anticipated timing of the transaction, the services
offered by Ginkgo and the markets in which it operates, and
Ginkgo's projected future results. These forward-looking statements
generally are identified by the words "believe," "project,"
"potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "intend,"
"strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may," "should,"
"will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result,"
and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are
predictions, projections and other statements about future events
that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a
result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could
cause actual future events to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements in this document, including but not
limited to: (i) the risk that the transaction may not be completed
in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect the price
of Soaring Eagle's securities, (ii) the risk that the transaction
may not be completed by Soaring Eagle's business combination
deadline and the potential failure to obtain an extension of the
business combination deadline if sought by Soaring Eagle, (iii) the
failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the
transaction, including the adoption of the agreement and plan of
merger by the shareholders of Soaring Eagle and Ginkgo, the
satisfaction of the minimum trust account amount following
redemptions by Soaring Eagle's public shareholders and the receipt
of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, (iv) the lack of
a third party valuation in determining whether or not to pursue the
proposed transaction, (v) the occurrence of any event, change or
other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the
agreement and plan of merger, (vi) the effect of the announcement
or pendency of the transaction on Ginkgo business relationships,
performance, and business generally, (vii) risks that the proposed
transaction disrupts current plans of Ginkgo and potential
difficulties in Ginkgo employee retention as a result of the
proposed transaction, (viii) the outcome of any legal proceedings
that may be instituted against Ginkgo or against Soaring Eagle
related to the agreement and plan of merger or the proposed
transaction, (ix) the ability to maintain the listing of Soaring
Eagle's securities on Nasdaq, (x) volatility in the price of
Soaring Eagle's securities due to a variety of factors, including
changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which
Ginkgo plans to operate, variations in performance across
competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's
business and changes in the combined capital structure, (xi) the
ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other
expectations after the completion of the proposed transaction, and
identify and realize additional opportunities, and (xii) the risk
of downturns in demand for products using synthetic biology. The
foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully
consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and
uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors'' section of Soaring
Eagle's proxy statement/prospectus relating to the transaction (the
"Proxy Statement"), and in Soaring Eagle's other filings with the
SEC. Soaring Eagle and Ginkgo caution that the foregoing list of
factors is not exclusive. Soaring Eagle and Ginkgo caution readers
not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements,
which speak only as of the date made. Neither Soaring Eagle nor
Ginkgo undertake or accept any obligation or undertaking to release
publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements
to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events,
conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is
based.
Additional Information and Where to Find It
This
document relates to a proposed transaction between Ginkgo and
Soaring Eagle. This document does not constitute an offer to sell
or exchange, or the solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange,
any securities, nor shall there be any sale of securities in any
jurisdiction in which such offer, sale or exchange would be
unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the
securities laws of any such jurisdiction. In connection with the
proposed transaction, Soaring Eagle filed a Proxy Statement on
August 13, 2021. The Proxy Statement
has been sent to all Soaring Eagle shareholders as of the record
date of August 10, 2021. Soaring
Eagle also will file other documents regarding the proposed
transaction with the SEC. Before making any voting decision,
investors and security holders of Soaring Eagle and Ginkgo are
urged to read the registration statement, the proxy
statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that
will be filed with the SEC in connection with the proposed
transaction as they become available because they will contain
important information about the proposed transaction.
Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the
proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed
or that will be filed with the SEC by Soaring Eagle through the
website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. In addition, the
documents filed by Soaring Eagle may be obtained free of charge by
written request to Soaring Eagle at 955 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10075, Attention: Eli Baker, Chief Financial Officer, (310)
209-7280.
Participants in Solicitation
Soaring Eagle and Ginkgo
and their respective directors and officers may be deemed to be
participants in the solicitation of proxies from Soaring Eagle's
shareholders in connection with the proposed transaction.
Information about Soaring Eagle's directors and executive officers
and their ownership of Soaring Eagle's securities is set forth in
Soaring Eagle's filings with the SEC. To the extent that holdings
of Soaring Eagle's securities have changed since the amounts
printed in Soaring Eagle's proxy statement, such changes have been
or will be reflected on Statements of Change in Ownership on Form 4
filed with the SEC. Additional information regarding the interests
of those persons and other persons who may be deemed participants
in the proposed transaction may be obtained by reading the proxy
statement/prospectus regarding the proposed transaction when it
becomes available. You may obtain free copies of these documents as
described in the preceding paragraph.
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks