Amyris Biotechnologies - Top 20 VC deals of 2008

Company: Amyris Biotechnologies
Based: Emeryville, CA
Amount: $65.11M

Investors: Khosla Ventures, Duff Ackerman & Goodrich, TPG Growth, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Undisclosed Venture Firm

Scoop: Amyris is a renewable products company which is developing solutions for transportation energy and climate issues. Under a non-profit initiative, Amyris is applying its technology to provide a second source of artemisinin, an anti-malarial therapy, which will be commercialized by Sanofi. Artemisinin is derived from a rare African tree. Rather than trying to cultivate the tree, Amyris is using synthetic biology to produce the derivative in the lab, which will make the drug more affordable and easier to produce.