Caladan Bio
We believe that synthetic biology can solve some of the world’s biggest problems. With recent advances in DNA sequencing and artificial intelligence, it would seem that the synthetic biology industry is poised for significant growth. The rise of bioengineering toolsets, enhanced by AI, has significantly boosted the viability of biomanufacturing, resulting in the emergence of thousands of emerging biotech companies. However, the pace at which these new synthetic biology projects are scaling in the real world does not come close to the pace at which scientific advancements are being made.
Synthetic biology companies are dying on the vine because they cannot scale their process enough to reach cost parity with existing products. Managing bioprocessing programs is labor-intensive and inefficient, often requiring several employees to manage operations, machine maintenance, and data collection. This all results in long, multi-year processes to get products to scale. We need to build new infrastructure that opens up access to synthetic biology to properly unlock its promises.
Today, we are thrilled to announce that we recently led the seed round of Caladan Bio, alongside our friends at Lerer Hippeau, Collaborative Fund, and Wireframe. Caladan Bio is building a mini bioreactor at a fraction of the cost of existing solutions. With an intelligent software and hardware suite, Caladan Bio’s platform accelerates R&D and scale-up for companies that are bringing bio-made products to market. We believe that Caladan Bio represents something fundamental and powerful: opening access to synthetic biology by building a full-stack bioreactor at a fraction of the cost of existing solutions.
The company was founded in 2023 by Mike Kobida and Rob Jauquet, two friends who met in undergrad at University of Wisconsin, Madison. After stints at Makerbot, Peloton, Opentrons, and Zapier, the two have come together to bring the idea of a cost-efficient mini bioreactor to fruition. As experts in bringing hardware and software automation tools to market, Mike and Rob are well-positioned to pave the way to a synbio future that we believe in.
