Arcaea, with Former Mother Dirt Founder as CEO, Announces $78M Series A

Arcaea—a brand incubated on the Ginkgo Bioworks platform—has announced its $78 million Series A. Investors include Cascade Investment L.L.C., Viking Global, Chanel, Givaudan and Wittington Ventures
 
Arcaea says it plans to grow new ingredients and product experiences across across skincare, body care, hair care, and aesthetics. 
 
This Series A financing round will enable Arcaea to initiate multiple technical programs across key categories in beauty to develop a pipeline of ingredients and brand launches. The brand plans to leverage DNA sequencing, biological engineering and fermentation.

The company was initially incubated and formed under the name Kalo Ingredients LLC. 

Ginkgo is building a platform to enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. 
 
Jasmina Aganovic—known from her roles at Freshand Living Proof and as the founder and CEO of Mother Dirt—is Arcaea’s chief executive.

She joined Ginkgo Bioworks as an entrepreneur-in-residence, where she spent the last two years building the foundation for Arcaea.

“Through Arcaea, we see biology as a creative tool that will drive the next generation of products and innovation. We can now access many more molecules on earth ethically and sustainably, and therefore can unlock unlimited and previously unimagined possibilities for beauty,” said Aganovic. “By bringing together new advances in technology with designers, brand builders, and leaders from every point of the supply chain, we can spark a change across the entire ecosystem to create an industry that is reflective of the future we want to see for the industry.”

“One of the most impactful things we can do at Ginkgo is support entrepreneurs and help them accelerate their timelines to make incredible things happen with biology,” said Jason Kelly, co-founder and CEO of Ginkgo Bioworks. “We are thrilled to see Arcaea launch and begin its journey to deliver creative solutions to the beauty industry through biology.”