Ginkgo Bioworks cofounders Tom Knight, Reshma Shetty, Jason Kelly, Barry Canton and Austin Che Michael Prince for ForbesSynthetic biology pioneer Ginkgo Bioworks agreed to go public today in a $17.5 billion SPAC deal. The Boston-based company will merge with Soaring Eagle Acquisition Corp., a blank-check firm founded by former Hollywood exec Harry Sloan in a giant deal for SPAC companies on Nasdaq. Gingko’s deal values the company at $15 billion, with the merger pumping in $2.5 billion of capital. Ginkgo forecasts that revenue will continue to rise rapidly, surpassing $1 billion by 2025. Arie Belldegrun, who started Kite Pharma and Allogene Therapeutics, is cosponsoring the deal with Soaring Eagle.

Source: Forbes May 11, 2021 13:49 UTC