Lygos, Inc., a bio-based specialty chemicals company, announced last week the closing of $13 million in Series A financing led by IA Ventures and OS Fund. Other investors include First Round Capital, the Y Combinator Continuity Fund, 50 Years and Vast Ventures, along with notable angel investors.

Lygos has pioneered the world’s first bio-based production of malonic acid. Lygos has already engineered and is shipping to customers metric ton quantities of its Bio-malonic™ acid. Lygos said it has created an engineering development platform that combines software and new biochemistry technology to engineer microbes optimized to produce the industry’s highest-quality specialty chemicals at scale much faster, safer, and more reliably than traditional petroleum-based production methods.

Just a reminder to Tecnon OrbiChem Biomaterials subscribers, we have a more comprehensive report on malonic acid in our May 2016 issue (#33).