New Delhi, Oct 12 (IANS): US-based biotechnology company Zymergen on Wednesday announced that it has raised $130 million in Series B funding led by Japanese telecommunications company SoftBank Group.

Zymergen also announced two additions to its board of directors -- former US Secretary of Energy and Nobel laureate Steven Chu, and SoftBank Group International Managing Director Deep Nishar, previously a longtime senior executive at Google and LinkedIn. 

"We are thrilled that SoftBank understands our proven business and supports our long-term growth," said Joshua Hoffman, Co-founder and CEO, Zymergen, in a statement.

Zymergen has developed a proprietary platform, which uses robots and machine learning to engineer microbes faster and more predictably.

These microbes and the products they produce, have broad applications across industries, such as chemicals and materials, agriculture and healthcare, the company said.

"Zymergen has a revolutionary approach to engineering biology that is already solving business problems for Fortune 500 customers, and a proven ability to impact the economics of these mature, at-scale businesses," added Nishar.