GS is Co-Lead Underwriters on these IPO Filings
SOLAZYME, INC.
Our Company
We make oil. Our proprietary technology transforms a range of low-cost plant-based sugars into high-value oils. Our renewable products can replace or enhance oils derived from the world’s three existing sources—petroleum, plants and animal fats. We tailor the composition of our oils to address specific customer requirements, offering superior performance characteristics at a competitive cost to conventional oils. Our oils can address the major markets served by conventional oils, which represented an opportunity of over $3.1 trillion in 2010. Initially, we are focused on commercializing our products into three target markets: (1) fuels and chemicals, (2) nutrition and (3) skin and personal care.
CERES, INC.
Our Company
We are an agricultural biotechnology company selling seeds to produce renewable biomass feedstocks that can enable the large-scale replacement of petroleum and other fossil fuels. We use a combination of advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to develop new crops, known as dedicated energy crops, that we believe address the limitations of first-generation bioenergy feedstocks, such as corn and sugarcane, increase biomass productivity, reduce crop inputs and improve cultivation on marginal land.
Our first large-scale commercial products are proprietary sweet sorghum varieties that can be used as a “drop-in” feedstock to extend the operating season of Brazilian sugarcane-to-ethanol mills, the operating days of which are currently limited due to the inherent limitations of sugarcane physiology and growth patterns. Our dedicated energy crops can also be used for the production of second-generation biofuels and bio-based chemicals, including cellulosic ethanol, butanol, jet fuel, diesel-like molecules and gasoline-like molecules, from non-food biomass. Finally, baseload utility-scale electric power can also be generated from the biomass feedstocks grown from our seeds.
The seed industry has historically required very little capital to manufacture seeds, and seeds have typically been sold at prices that generate high gross margins. As a producer of proprietary seeds, we believe we are in the most attractive segment of the bioenergy value chain — upstream from the capital intensive refining and conversion of biomass. For example, in 2009 corn seed providers maintained high margins when volatile commodity prices significantly impacted corn ethanol refining margins. Therefore, we believe our success is tied to adoption of our products rather than the relative profitability of downstream participants. Our upstream position in the value chain also allows us to be largely independent of the success of any particular conversion technology or end use.
