Synthetic Genomics turns to palm oil with $8M investment

Craig Venter is famous for discovering and modifying microorganisms, but his biofuels company, Synthetic Genomics, plans to take the research a step further by sequencing the genome of the oil palm plant.

The company just raised $8 million from Genting Group, a Malaysian conglomerate, according to national newspaper The Star (credit to Earth2Tech for digging this up). Synthetic Genomics already had a partnership with Genting to work on palm oil, which is a major export in Malaysia. The two hope to improve the palm’s ability to produce oil, thus creating more fuel.

Another feedstock plant that SGI plans to work on is jatropha, a berry-producing plant that is rapidly growing in popularity.

It’s hard to tell how much of a stake Genting now has in Synthetic Genomics, but it’s likely not much. After raising money last year, the company was reportedly valued at about $300 million. Even if that valuation has not risen at all, Genting controls less than three percent of Venter’s outfit.Still, this partnership could lead to some interesting results.

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