Ginkgo Bioworks

founders: Jason kelly (ceo), reshma shetty, austin che, barry canton, tom knight

Equity raised: $154 million Estimated 2017 revenue: more than $20 million

Lead investors: senator investment group, viking global investors, Y combinator

What it does: makes custom-designed living cells for companies in the fragrance, food, agriculture and pharmaceutical industries. using Dna that it designs and manufactures, boston-based ginkgo programs cells to produce everything from the enzymes needed to make cheese and yogurt to the essential ingredient in peach flavoring. for french fragrance firm robertet, ginkgo makes microbes that generate rose oil. according to ceo kelly, ginkgo is poised for growth, with 44 cells in the works for 25 customers that will pay both r&d fees and royalties. in 2009, kelly and three other mit ph.d.s teamed up with their mit mentor, engineer turned synthetic biologist tom knight, and launched the company, which relied on government grants to develop its technology for the first five years. in 2014, the company went through silicon valley accelerator Y combinator and kicked off its first commercial products. ginkgo’s 170 employees work with an army of 60 software-directed robots.