Lessons from Zymergen's failed Hyaline product

November 02, 2022 | Case Study

Zymergen was founded in 2013, based on a promising machine-learning platform that allowed the company to rapidly engineer microbial strains for different chemical and material targets. By 2018, the company had raised nearly USD 600 million from those believing it could significantly improve the economics of its partners' existing microbial strains and deliver new products to market. The company's first stand-alone product was a polyimide film, called Hyaline, co-developed with Sumitomo Chemical. Launched at the end of 2020, the long-anticipated product was not the success Zymergen hoped it would be.