Chicago, Illinois, USA
October 25, 2011
Chromatin, Inc., a supplier of renewable biomass feedstocks for energy producers, today announced completion of a $10 million first closing of its Series D financing round that included two strategic investors – BP Ventures and Unilever Technology Ventures – as well as three investors who participated in earlier rounds of financing: Quantitative Investment Holdings, the Malaysian Life Sciences Capital Fund, and Illinois Ventures.
The additional capital will help fund Chromatin's programs to develop supply chains of energy crop feedstocks for producers of renewable energy. Drawing on capital raised in earlier rounds of venture funding, as well as revenue from its seed and technology sales, Chromatin has launched production-scale tests in electricity-generating plants of its specially bred non-food sorghum crops that can grow on marginal land using less water and fewer chemicals than other energy crops.
"This investment signals BP's continued commitment to renewable energy feedstocks", said Justin Adams, Head of BP Ventures. "Chromatin is beginning to develop an exciting bioenergy business with their sorghum platform, and we are interested in understanding how we could deploy their feedstock technologies in our own activities."
"We are impressed with Chromatin's extraordinary execution record," said Andrew Williamson, speaking on behalf of Unilever Technology Ventures. "The company has consistently achieved milestones, exceeded revenue targets, and assembled an international network of sorghum growers and distributors that produce market-leading feedstocks."
"We'll look forward to drawing on the insights of BP and Unilever as we bring to market our sustainable biomass feedstocks to companies producing renewable chemicals, fuels and power," said Daphne Preuss, Chromatin's CEO. "This market opportunity is growing rapidly, and Chromatin is pleased to have these strategic investors as partners."
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