Funding profile · Industrial biotechnology

Industrial Microbes

Ten years of federal grant money, a Defense Department award to plan a factory, a seed round announced in November 2024, and no Form D on file with the SEC under either company name.

Data as of September 23, 2026. Company-reported figures are labeled.

Rounds at a glance

What the filings show

Reading the filings

1. There is nothing to read, and that is the finding.A company that announced a first close in November 2024 would owe a Form D within 15 days of first sale if the offering used Regulation D. None exists. Companies that sell under Section 4(a)(2) file nothing, so the absence is not evidence that no money moved, but it does mean the round size, investor count and average check are unverifiable from the public record.
2. At least a third of the money is public.SBIR listings across NSF, EPA, DOE and USDA come to about $2.0 million, and the 2024 Defense Department planning award adds $1.55 million. That is roughly $3.55 million of federal money against a company-reported total of more than $10 million, or about 35%. The company has not said whether its $10 million figure includes grants.
3. Nine years to a seed round.The company dates to 2014 and went through Y Combinator in 2015. The first close of a round labelled seed came on November 19, 2024. Federal awards, not equity, carried the first decade.
4. The grant figure does not reconcile.In October 2019 the company said it had raised more than $3.5 million in grant funding to date. SBIR awards on the record through 2019 total $1,929,999, or $2,029,999 if the higher EPA Phase II figure listed by inKnowVation is used instead of the $300,000 shown on SBIR.gov. That leaves roughly $1.5 million of stated grant money with no matching public award record.
5. The largest single check is a government one.The $1.55 million DBIMP award is the biggest amount attached to this company anywhere in the public record. No private round amount has ever been disclosed, only a cumulative total. The DBIMP structure matters more than the size: planning awardees can negotiate for follow-on access to up to $100 million to build a facility.
6. Two investors, no valuation, no board disclosure.First Bight Ventures led and Universal Materials Incubator Co. participated. No other investor has been named, no valuation reported, and no board composition disclosed. With no Form D, there is no related persons list to check any of it against.

Commercial signals

What to watch

• A first Form D, or a Series A announcement with a named lead and a stated amount.
• Whether the DBIMP planning award converts to a construction award and a named site.
• Conversion of a letter of intent into a supply agreement with a named counterparty.
• Any disclosure of whether the more than $10 million total counts federal grant money.

The Industrial Microbes story on Healthcare DiscoveryHealthcare Discovery

Related companies

• Lygos: Also in Industrial Bio. A Berkeley Lab spinout that taught yeast to make malonic acid without cyanide, then became a specialty chemicals supplier whose polymers end up in shampoo, diapers and
• Solugen: Also in Industrial Bio. A Houston company that turns corn sugar into industrial chemicals using an enzyme its co-founder found in pancreatic cancer cells
• BluumBio: Also in Industrial Bio. A four-person Berkeley company making microbial products that eat industrial pollution
• Synvivia: Also in Industrial Bio. A UC Berkeley spinout that built molecular on and off switches so engineered microbes die unless they are fed a specific chemical

Sources

1. Public recordEDGAR company search and Form D full text search for Industrial Microbes and iMicrobesSEC · Sep 23, 2026
2. Public recordNSF award 1520425, SBIR Phase INational Science Foundation · 2015 to 2016
3. Public recordSBIR award 160064, EPA Phase II, contract EP-D-17-020SBIR.gov · 2017 to 2019
4. Public recordDoD Releases Five Awards for Distributed Bioindustrial Manufacturing ProgramUS Department of Defense, cto.mil · Aug 19, 2024
5. Public recordDepartment of Energy’s Agile BioFoundry and ABPDU Partner with Industrial MicrobesUS Department of Energy · Oct 7, 2024
6. Public recordCompany profile with SBIR award history by agency, Industrial Microbes IncinKnowVation · last edited Oct 12, 2017
7. Public recordPatents assigned to INDUSTRIAL MICROBES, INC.Justia Patents · accessed Sep 23, 2026
8. IndependentiMicrobes closes seed round of $10M to transform ethanol and methane into biochemicalsBiofuels Digest, Meghan Sapp · Nov 19, 2024
9. IndependentIndustrial Microbes secures $10 M in seed funding to scale sustainable biobased materialsWorld Bio Market Insights · Nov 22, 2024
10. Independent17 New BioMADE Projects Aim to Boost U.S. BioeconomySynBioBeta · accessed Sep 23, 2026
11. CompanyIndustrial Microbes announces seed round fundingIndustrial Microbes blog · Nov 19, 2024
12. CompanyIndustrial Microbes and Opus 12 Awarded $1M to Turn Waste Gas into Valuable ChemicalsSynBioBeta, company release · Oct 1, 2019

Compiled from SEC, NSF, EPA, DOE, USDA and Department of Defense public records and published reports as of September 23, 2026. Form D notices report offerings under Regulation D; no such notice exists for this company, and offerings sold under Section 4(a)(2) require none. Healthcare Venture Capital Fund holds no position in Industrial Microbes. This page is not an offer to sell or a recommendation to buy any security.