Manufacturing industrial

Lygos

Website

Performance materials company that used proprietary biology and chemistry to develop sustainable, high-performance ingredients and polymers. The company raised more than $200 million, scaled manufacturing, and commercialized products across agriculture, cleaning, personal care, and other specialty-materials markets. Lygos ultimately concluded throu

Founded 2011Origin source ↗Checked 2026-10-24

Overview

Performance materials company that used proprietary biology and chemistry to develop sustainable, high-performance ingredients and polymers. The company raised more than $200 million, scaled manufacturing, and commercialized products across agriculture, cleaning, personal care, and other specialty-materials markets. Lygos ultimately concluded through two strategic sales (DOD-funded organization, BioMADE and other strategic acquirers).

Company description As recorded 2026-11-08
LinkedIn
Manufacturing industrialBusinessesEnterpriseLicensing

Founders & team

Eric Steen

Founder/CEO

Eric Steen founded Lygos (YC W16) and spent 15 years building it from a DOE laboratory spinout into a commercial performance-materials company. As CEO, he raised >$200M, built a multidisciplinary org (100+), scaled manufacturing, launched products across multiple markets, and led two strategic sales. Eric holds a BS in Biomedical Engineering from Brown and a PhD in Bioengineering from the joint UC Berkeley–UCSF program, and completed the Management of Technology program at Berkeley Haas.

Founder profile As recorded 2026-10-24

Jeffrey Dietrich

Founder

Jeffrey Dietrich received his Ph.D. in BioEngineering from UC-Berkeley working in Jay Keasling’s lab to develop new biomanufacturing technologies. Jeffrey then co-founded and was CTO at Lygos (YC W16), which raised over $40MM in equity financing and $10MM in Federal awards to commercialize industrial biochemicals. He has also served on advisory boards for Department of Energy- and National Science Foundation-backed institutions and is an inventor on 17 patents or patent applications.

LinkedIn
Founder profile As recorded 2026-10-24
55team members reported
Source-reported As recorded 2026-10-24

Founded 2011 · Source

News & product activity

Sources & observations

Y Combinator

Profile depthverified profile
Website observationsite error
Last website check2026-11-11
Location · source statedSan Francisco, CA, USA
Pricing evidenceNo pricing page confirmed
Maturity: Not assessed · 3 of 6 areas documented

Source-based assessment · automated evidence rules

The latest website check does not confirm this company’s website.

Maturity is an evidence-based assessment, not a success rating. It may understate the current stage where evidence is limited. Coverage records documented areas, not a complete or independently audited company history.

Stage definitions
independent websitesource corroborationdescriptive evidenceclassified market and modelsourced peoplesourced founding year
startup.observe Directory coverage · Sources & method