Agile BioFoundry
Agile BioFoundry is a DOE-funded consortium of seven U.S. national laboratories that partners with industry and academia to accelerate industrial biomanufacturing through its Design-Build-Test-Learn platform, spanning strain engineering, automation, and techno-economic assessment for bio-based fuels and chemicals.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2017
- HeadquartersEmeryville, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingServices
What Agile BioFoundry does
Agile BioFoundry (ABF) is a consortium of seven U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories, established in 2017 and led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, that operates a public research infrastructure for advancing industrial biomanufacturing of fuels and chemicals. ABF integrates Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) capabilities spanning metabolic pathway development, genetic tools for over 15 host organisms, automated laboratory workflows (proteomic sample preparation, robotic protein purification/enzyme assays, high-throughput PKS engineering), targeted metabolomics, and techno-economic and life-cycle assessment. Machine learning is embedded in the platform via an Automated Recommendation Tool for PKS design and pathway optimization. The consortium serves two primary customer segments: industrial biotechnology companies developing bio-based products (fuels, chemicals, materials) and academic research institutions working on synthetic biology and biomanufacturing.
Agile BioFoundry firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Agile BioFoundry
- Legal name
- Agile BioFoundry
- Website
- https://agilebiofoundry.org
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2017
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- Agile BioFoundry is a DOE-funded consortium of seven U.S. national laboratories that partners with industry and academia to accelerate industrial biomanufacturing through its Design-Build-Test-Learn platform, spanning strain engineering, automation, and techno-economic assessment for bio-based fuels and chemicals.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Agile BioFoundry industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Biomanufacturing Research Services
- NAICS
- Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)
- SIC
- Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Bioprocess Development & Scale-Up/Scale-Down Platforms (DoE, high-throughput, modeling) (HLAAAJAF)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Bio-based Platform & Commodity Chemicals (e.g., bio-ethylene, bio-propylene, bio-BTX, bio-methanol) (EUAAAIAA), Biofuels & Renewable Fuels Switching (Biomethane/RNG, Bio-oils, Sustainable Biomass) (EUABAJAD), Synthetic Biology & Genetic Circuit Design Platforms (pathway engineering, chassis development) (HLAAAIAD)
Keywords
Where Agile BioFoundry is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Emeryville
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Agile BioFoundry business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- DOE Federal Funding: The Agile BioFoundry is a consortium of U.S. National Laboratories funded by the Department of Energy's Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO). Operations are supported by federal appropriations, not commercial revenue generation.
- Industry Partnership Collaborations: Collaborative research projects with industry partners, often co-funded by DOE research grants. Example: $250,000 DOE funding over 24 months for ZymoChem partnership on bio-adipic acid.
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels1 record
Marketing channels4 records
Agile BioFoundry product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Agile BioFoundry is a consortium of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories that provides collaborative research infrastructure and a Design-Build-Test-Learn platform for industrial biomanufacturing. It partners with industry and academia to accelerate the development of bio-based fuels, chemicals, and materials, offering capabilities spanning metabolic pathway design, genetic engineering, automated lab workflows, machine learning for pathway optimization, techno-economic/life-cycle assessment, host onboarding, and process scale-up via the ABPDU facility.
Product overview
Agile BioFoundry (ABF) is a consortium of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories (including Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, and Los Alamos National Laboratory) providing fee-for-service research infrastructure to accelerate biomanufacturing. ABF operates a Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) platform consisting of interconnected capabilities including Pathway Development and Evaluation, Genetic Tools, Automated Lab workflows (sample preparation, protein purification, enzyme assays), Experiment Data Depot, Targeted Metabolomics, Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Assessment, Host Onboarding, and Scale-Up support via the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU). ABF also provides Machine Learning tools for PKS design and pathway optimization. Rather than a commercial product company with packaged software, ABF functions as a public research infrastructure consortium offering industry and academic partners access to its capabilities on a collaborative or fee-for-service basis.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL) Platform
- Process Scale-Up Services
- Host Onboarding Service
- Techno-Economic and Life-Cycle Assessment
- Licensable Technologies Portfolio
Quantifiable outcome
- Up to 80% greenhouse gas emissions reduction for bio-based adipic acid vs. fossil-derived
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use Agile BioFoundry
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Agile BioFoundry technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature6 records
Agile BioFoundry partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered core, supporting and minor.
- ZymoChemcorePartnership to accelerate research on bio-adipic acid for bio-nylon 6,6 production. The collaboration uses proteomics and machine learning to develop a microbial host for bio-adipic acid production. Backed by $250,000 in DOE research funding over 24 months, in collaboration with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
- KiverdicoreDevelopment of genetic tools to improve engineering efficiency of Cupriavidus necator, a chemoautotrophic bacterium that converts carbon dioxide into valuable products. Kiverdi used these tools to engineer dodecanol production from CO2.
- seqWellsupportingPartnership to develop cost-effective, high-throughput workflows to accelerate strain engineering for biomanufacturing.
- EndurocoreValidation study of Enduro Sense technology that sustains bioproduction over long periods. Demonstrated 600% production improvement at 300L scale using Bacillus subtilis. The technology uses biosensors to maintain highly productive cells in bioprocesses.
- UC BerkeleycoreMultiple collaborations including high-throughput polyketide synthase engineering platform and PKS machine learning tools. Jay Keasling's lab at UC Berkeley co-leads PKS research with ABF.
- Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU)coreScale-up facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory providing fermentation and bioprocess scale-up capabilities. Partnered with ABF and Enduro on validation studies.
- Oak Ridge National LaboratorysupportingKiverdi licensed Oak Ridge's SAGE tool (genome engineering) for use in Cupriavidus necator, in collaboration with ABF capabilities.
- TerragiaminorIndustry partner represented at ABF 2026 Industry Day, sharing industry perspective on biomanufacturing commercialization.
- LanzaTechminorIndustry partner represented at ABF 2026 Industry Day, sharing industry perspective on biomanufacturing.
- VisolisminorIndustry partner represented at ABF 2026 Industry Day, sharing industry perspective on biomanufacturing.
- BioMADEminorManufacturing USA institute partner represented at ABF 2026 Industry Day, sharing industry ecosystem perspective.
- AzollaminorPartner company with founder Milan Hanacek participating as panelist at 2026 Industry Day Host Onboarding panel.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Agile BioFoundry competitors and assessment
Company assessmentOthers
- Twist Bioscience: Twist provides DNA synthesis and synthetic biology tools widely used in strain engineering workflows; the former ABF lead PI moved to Twist, indicating strong talent and technology adjacency to ABF's Build phase.
Direct peers
- Amyris: Amyris develops bio-based ingredients and products using engineered yeast strains, overlapping with ABF on metabolic engineering, bio-based chemical production, and partnerships with consumer goods companies.
- Culture Biosciences: Culture Biosciences offers contract bioprocess development and fermentation services with cloud-based monitoring, serving industrial biotech companies with scale-up and process optimization needs similar to ABF's DBTL and ABPDU scale-up capabilities.
- Codexis: Codexis engineers enzymes and biocatalysts for industrial chemistry applications, overlapping with ABF's enzyme expression/purification pipeline, PKS engineering platform, and bio-based chemical development focus.
- Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI): JBEI is a DOE-funded bioenergy research institute based at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, overlapping with ABF on synthetic biology, pathway engineering, and biofuels R&D, and co-located with the lead ABF lab.
- Ginkgo Bioworks: Ginkgo operates a commercial synthetic biology foundry with a Design-Build-Test-Learn platform serving industrial biotech customers across fuels, chemicals, and materials, directly competing with ABF for industry partnerships and licensing revenue.
Broad incumbents
- Agilent Technologies: Agilent supplies analytical instruments (mass spectrometry, chromatography) used in bioprocess analytics and proteomics, and is a partner in ABF's ecosystem; broadly comparable as a major enabler of biomanufacturing R&D.
- BioMADE: BioMADE is a Manufacturing USA institute focused on biomanufacturing, with a similar mission of advancing U.S. industrial bioprocess capabilities and an overlapping partner ecosystem; ABF and BioMADE share panel presence at Industry Day events.
Emerging players
- Bota Bio: Bota Bio is an emerging synthetic biology company providing strain engineering and bioprocess scale-up services for bio-based products, competing with ABF for industrial biotech partnerships in specialty chemicals and materials.
Regional players
- LanzaTech: LanzaTech commercializes gas fermentation for fuels and chemicals from industrial off-gases, sharing ABF's bio-based chemicals/fuels thesis and presenting at ABF's Industry Day; comparable as a biomanufacturing commercialization-stage peer.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Agile BioFoundry social profiles
Digital presenceAgile BioFoundry financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Agile BioFoundry leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles3 records
Agile BioFoundry funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Agile BioFoundry M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Agile BioFoundry
What does Agile BioFoundry do?
Agile BioFoundry is a consortium of U.S. Department of Energy national laboratories that provides collaborative research infrastructure and a Design-Build-Test-Learn platform for industrial biomanufacturing. It partners with industry and academia to accelerate the development of bio-based fuels, chemicals, and materials, offering capabilities spanning metabolic pathway design, genetic engineering, automated lab workflows, machine learning for pathway optimization, techno-economic/life-cycle assessment, host onboarding, and process scale-up via the ABPDU facility.
Is Agile BioFoundry a public or private company?
Agile BioFoundry is a private company. It is classified as state government owned and is currently operating.
When was Agile BioFoundry founded?
Agile BioFoundry was founded in 2017. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is Agile BioFoundry based?
Agile BioFoundry is headquartered in Emeryville, United States, in the North America region.
How does Agile BioFoundry make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. DOE Federal Funding is the primary driver. The others are industry Partnership Collaborations.
Who are Agile BioFoundry's main competitors?
Twist Bioscience is listed as an others. Direct peers are Amyris, Culture Biosciences, Codexis, Joint BioEnergy Institute (JBEI) and Ginkgo Bioworks. Broad incumbents are Agilent Technologies and BioMADE. Bota Bio is listed as an emerging player. LanzaTech is listed as a regional player.
Does Agile BioFoundry have an API?
No public API is recorded for Agile BioFoundry.
What industry is Agile BioFoundry in?
Agile BioFoundry's product category is Biomanufacturing Research Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HLAAAJAF, Bioprocess Development & Scale-Up/Scale-Down Platforms (DoE, high-throughput, modeling), with a secondary code of EUAAAIAA, Bio-based Platform & Commodity Chemicals (e.g., bio-ethylene, bio-propylene, bio-BTX, bio-methanol). Its NAICS code is 541714 and its SIC code is 8731.