Managing Partner
Partner
Partner
Vice President
Senior Associate
Co-Heads of Xenobiology
We have the capacity to create everything we need to flourish – from food to medicine to new materials. As we adapt biology with compassion and care, the future is waiting to be written.
Let’s grow a new world together.
We have the capacity to create everything we need to flourish – from food to medicine to new materials. As we adapt biology with compassion and care, the future is waiting to be written.
Let’s grow a new world together.
Jason Kakoyiannis founded Ferment in 2021 as the vehicle to create the next wave of synthetic biology product companies. Specifically, these are companies born platform native on top of Foundries like the ones at Ginkgo Bioworks. In the age of “bio Foundries,” biotech company creation looks different because Founding teams can take immediate advantage of ready hardware infrastructure, debugged biological code assets, and other economies of scale.
Jason joined forces with Ginkgo Bioworks in 2015 as part of the commercial team. From 2018 – 2021 he was Head of Ventures, where he helped found strategic spinoff companies like Motif Foodworks (food ingredients), Allonnia (waste remediation), Arcaea (personal care and beauty actives), Verb Biotics (probiotics for consumer nutrition), and Ayana Bio (plant bioactives for complementary medicine).
Prior to joining forces with Ginkgo, Jason held strategic growth roles at Givaudan developing global products and brands with Unilever, Natura, Estée Lauder, and others. He began his career as an M&A attorney at Shearman & Sterling in public company transactions and takeover defense. Jason received his BA from Brown University, MA from Yale, and JD from USC.
Jason lives in Los Angeles where he plays tennis, hikes, and, when not immersed in Ferment, acts as an advisor to Stand Together Ventures Labs, which builds startups solving social problems at scale.
Brian believes that biotechnology is a critical enabler in developing solutions to some of the grand challenges we face on our path towards a more sustainable future. He has focused his entire career on understanding different parts of the value chain in industrial, food, and agricultural applications of biotechnology.
Prior to joining Ferment, Brian was the President of North America for Novozymes where he oversaw a broad range of businesses. Previous to his work at Novozymes, Brian worked in R&D, manufacturing, and commercial roles at Cargill and DSM. From 2016-2017, Brian worked at Ginkgo Bioworks where he was General Manager of the Enzymes business.
Brian has a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota.
Jason Kakoyiannis founded Ferment.Co in 2021 as the vehicle to create the next wave of synthetic biology product companies. Specifically, these are companies born platform native on top of Foundries like the ones at Ginkgo Bioworks. In the age of “bio Foundries,” biotech company creation looks different because Founding teams can take immediate advantage of ready hardware infrastructure, debugged biological code assets, and other economies of scale.
Jason joined forces with Ginkgo Bioworks in 2015 as part of the commercial team. From 2018 – 2021 he was Head of Ventures, where he helped found strategic spinoff companies like Motif Foodworks (food ingredients), Allonnia (waste remediation), Arcaea (personal care and beauty actives), Verb Biotics (probiotics for consumer nutrition), and Ayana Bio (plant bioactives for complementary medicine).
Prior to joining forces with Ginkgo, Jason held strategic growth roles at Givaudan developing global products and brands with Unilever, Natura, Estée Lauder, and others. He began his career as an M&A attorney at Shearman & Sterling in public company transactions and takeover defense. Jason received his BA from Brown University, MA from Yale, and JD from USC.
Jason lives in Los Angeles where he plays tennis, hikes, and, when not immersed in Ferment, acts as an advisor to Stand Together Ventures Labs, which builds startups solving social problems at scale.
Jess Leber joined Ferment in 2022. Jess believes in the power of bioengineering to enable incredible products that will transform industries, economies, and the environment.
Jess was an early employee at Ginkgo Bioworks, where he helped grow the organization from 40 to almost 1000 employees. Across positions of increasing impact and responsibility, Jess led deals across numerous industries, including small-molecule natural products, oleochemicals, and biomaterials. Prior to Ginkgo, Jess was a scientist and member of the commercial team at Boston-area biofuels company Joule.With training at MIT, UCSF, and UC Berkeley, and a faculty position in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Chicago,
Jess brings a broad and deep knowledge of microbial bioengineering to the Ferment team.
Jason Kakoyiannis founded Ferment.Co in 2021 as the vehicle to create the next wave of synthetic biology product companies. Specifically, these are companies born platform native on top of Foundries like the ones at Ginkgo Bioworks. In the age of “bio Foundries,” biotech company creation looks different because Founding teams can take immediate advantage of ready hardware infrastructure, debugged biological code assets, and other economies of scale.
Jason joined forces with Ginkgo Bioworks in 2015 as part of the commercial team. From 2018 – 2021 he was Head of Ventures, where he helped found strategic spinoff companies like Motif Foodworks (food ingredients), Allonnia (waste remediation), Arcaea (personal care and beauty actives), Verb Biotics (probiotics for consumer nutrition), and Ayana Bio (plant bioactives for complementary medicine).
Prior to joining forces with Ginkgo, Jason held strategic growth roles at Givaudan developing global products and brands with Unilever, Natura, Estée Lauder, and others. He began his career as an M&A attorney at Shearman & Sterling in public company transactions and takeover defense. Jason received his BA from Brown University, MA from Yale, and JD from USC.
Jason lives in Los Angeles where he plays tennis, hikes, and, when not immersed in Ferment, acts as an advisor to Stand Together Ventures Labs, which builds startups solving social problems at scale.
Mia H. Helene joined Ferment as a Vice President in 2022, focusing on post-launch company operations (i.e. strategy, finance, stakeholder management), Ferment level operations, and the evaluation of new ventures.
Prior to joining Ferment, Mia was a Vice President and founding team member at Biospring Partners, a growth equity firm focused on life sciences tools, services, and technology. Prior to Biospring Partners, Mia completed her MBA at Harvard Business School, while working part-time as a Strategy & Finance Senior Manager at TMRW Life Sciences. Before HBS, Mia was a Private Equity Associate at New Mountain Capital and Investment Banking Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Mia received her BA from Duke University and her MBA from Harvard Business School.
She currently lives in Santa Monica with her husband and golden retriever and loves hiking, overly salted popcorn, and travel.
Matt Kirshner joined Ferment in 2022 focusing on incubating new ventures hand-in-hand with Ferment’s network of entrepreneurs and operators. Prior to joining Ferment, Matt contributed across a number of roles within the Ginkgo Bioworks commercial organization, focusing primarily on new venture incubation and partnerships with early-stage start-ups in the synthetic biology ecosystem.
Before catching the synbio bug, Matt worked at Putnam Associates, providing strategic advice to pharma and biotech clients. Matt received his BS from Duke University, where he credits his start in the biotechnology industry to a fellowship at the Duke Office of Licensing & Ventures.
When not berating his friends about the promise of synthetic biology, Matt can often be found snowboarding in the backcountry, at his local rock gym, or reading a WWII novel.
Penelope and Leo joined Ferment in 2021 and 2022, respectively. Penelope and Leo serve as Co-Heads of Xenobiology at Ferment, leading the team’s efforts in synthesizing and manipulating biological entities and systems new to science and nature. Their hard work is rewarded daily with treats and playtime.
In her spare time, Penelope can be found hiking in the Palisades or chewing sticks. In his spare time, Leo can be found begging for treats, cuddling, and managing his active social media presence.
