Ginkgo Bioworks Named as Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum

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Jun 27, 2016, 10:00 ET

BOSTON, June 27, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Ginkgo Bioworks, a leading organism design company bringing biology to industrial engineering, was today awarded as one of the World Economic Forum's Technology Pioneers, a selection of the world's most innovative companies. Ginkgo Bioworks is engineering biology to manufacture products at scale for the real world in the nutrition, health and consumer goods sectors. The company's organism engineers work directly with customers including Fortune 500 companies to design microbes for their specific needs.

Ginkgo Bioworks was chosen by a professional jury among hundreds of candidates as one of the 30 selected companies. Thanks to its selection, it will have access to an influential and sought-after business and political network worldwide. Jason Kelly, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder will participate in the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2017 in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland.

"We welcome Ginkgo Bioworks in this group of extraordinary pioneers," said Fulvia Montresor, Head of Technology Pioneers at the World Economic Forum. "Ginkgo Bioworks is among those companies that help shape the Fourth Industrial Revolution, a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work and relate to one another. Through the platform of the World Economic Forum, it will be able to scale and share its technology and achieve a larger impact."

"We are honored to be named a Technology Pioneer by the World Economic Forum and join this forward thinking group," said Jason Kelly, CEO and Co-Founder of Ginkgo Bioworks. "At Ginkgo we are working to reimagine technology through biological design. We believe that what information technology and computers were to the last century, biology will be for the next, and we are thrilled at the opportunity to connect and collaborate with innovators across industries and around the world."

As in previous years, American-based entrepreneurs continue to dominate the list of Technology Pioneers, with 22 out of 30 recipients. Other selected pioneers come from France (2), Luxembourg (2), and Canada, Israel, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The Technology Pioneers are mostly active in IT, health (medtech), food, energy, environment, financial services (fintech) and production.

The Technology Pioneers were selected from among hundreds of applicants by a selection committee of 68 academics, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and corporate executives. Notable members of the committee include Jeffrey M. Drazen (Editor-in-Chief, The New England Journal of Medicine) and Sang Yup Lee (Distinguished Professor and Director, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology). The committee based its decisions on criteria including innovation, potential impact, working prototype, viability and leadership. Past recipients include Google (2001), Wikimedia (2007), Mozilla (2007), Kickstarter (2011) and Airbnb (2013). More information on past winners can be found here.

All information on this year's Technology Pioneers can be found here: http://wef.ch/techpioneers

About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is an organism design company that is building organisms to specification for customers across a variety of markets including food, health, and consumer goods. The company's organism engineers work directly with customers, including Fortune 500 companies, to design microbes for their specific needs. The company was founded in 2008 by Tom Knight, a world-renowned computer scientist, and MIT biological engineering PhDs Jason Kelly, Reshma Shetty, Barry Cantonand Austin Che. Ginkgo Bioworks is based in Boston and is financially backed by Viking Global Investors, Senator Investment Group, Cascade Investment, Baillie Gifford, Felicis Ventures, OS Fund and Y Combinator, as well as other funds. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com or follow our Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/Ginkgoo.

About the World Economic Forum: The World Economic Forum, committed to improving the state of the world, is the International Organization for Public-Private Cooperation. The Forum engages the foremost political, business and other leaders of society to shape global, regional and industry agendas. (www.weforum.org).

Contact:
Sarah Spitz
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks