You asked about Synthetic Biology
55 people built something like it. 5 are gone.
That is 10% of the ones whose fate we could settle, against 23% across the whole register. 3 were acquired.
| Launched | What it was | Today |
|---|---|---|
| 2014-06-01 | Our mission is to make biology easier to engineer. · ginkgobioworks.com | acquired |
| 2016-01-01 | We make robots for biologists. · opentrons.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Next-generation DNA synthesis using enzymes · ansabio.com | still up |
| 2016-01-01 | YCLygos Lygos engineers yeast to convert sugar into high-value industrial… · lygos.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | maximizing biomass on low quality land · livingcarbon.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Makes guilt-free plastics from food waste · genecis.co | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCAdaptyv We're building fully automated labs for protein engineering · adaptyvbio.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | YCInvert Data analytics software for biomanufacturing. · invertbio.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Unlocking the next generation of mRNA medicines · sensible.bio | still up |
| 2018-01-01 | YCZBiotics ZBiotics makes genetically engineered probiotics. · zbiotics.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | We create activating antibodies to treat diseases others can’t. · abalonebio.com | still up |
| 2022-01-01 | Potent, durable, and redosable non-viral genetic medicines · engagebio.com | acquired |
| 2022-06-01 | We recycle plastic using engineered enzymes · birchbiosciences.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | YCEpinoma We engineer proteins that control the operating system of biology. · epinoma.com | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | Building programmable therapeutics for the immune system · granzabio.com | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | Elevated mRNA for transformative medicines. · parcelbio.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | A platform to make artificial viruses as cancer therapeutics. · humanegenomics.com | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | Gen-AI Designed Enzymes for Pharmaceutical Innovation · pando.bio | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YCACX Next-generation biocides for sustainable agriculture at scale · acxtherapeutics.com | still up |
| 2020-06-01 | Helping Plastic Surgeons Rebuild Fat · insomabio.com | still up |
| 2016-06-01 | YCSynvivia Synvivia applies chemical control over cell behavior · synvivia.com | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | YCMolagri Resistance free pesticides. · molagri.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | Enzyme design models. · ligo.bio | still up |
| 2023-01-01 | We teach your immune system to attack and cure cancer · modularit.bio | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | AI infrastructure for biosecurity · twentytwo.bio | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | The AI scientist for always-on biodefense · aminoanalytica.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | YC1849 bio Engineering microbes for miners to unlock billions in trapped metal · 1849.bio | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | "If-then" conditional logic for protein drugs · synsorybio.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | High quality mRNA for therapeutic application · cisternabx.com | still up |
| 2022-06-01 | Enabling Tissue Targeting of Therapies · eugittx.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | Genetically engineered viruses that teach your immune system to kill… · kopra.bio | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | Genetically engineering plants for disease resistance. · ohmicbiosciences.com | still up |
| 2026-06-01 | YCTareBio Vaccines for any cancer or infection in weeks. · tarebio.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | Foundation models and autonomous chambers for plant biology · urbankisaan.com | still up |
| 2023-06-01 | The cheapest way to borrow money · syntheticfi.com | still up |
| 2022-11-14 | tonic.ai | still up |
| 2023-04-20 | syntheticstandard.com | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | YCego AI applied research lab building synthetic sapience; human-like AI · egoai.com | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | The foundation for the next era of biology · outputbio.com | still up |
| 2020-01-01 | We generate synthetic data for computer vision models. · zumolabs.ai | gone |
| 2018-06-01 | Operating systems for biology labs · radix.bio | gone |
| 2018-06-01 | From screen recordings to desktop automations using program synthesis · warpdrive.co | gone |
| 2024-06-01 | Defect detection for manufacturing built from CAD and synthetic data. · bucket.bot | still up |
| 2021-06-01 | Programmable biology company for psychoactive effect design · mindstate.design | still up |
| 2024-01-01 | Breakthrough medicines unlocking the biology of heme · velorumtx.com | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | YCNovaflow The AI data analyst for biology labs · novaflow.ai | still up |
| 2022-06-02 | gretel.ai | moved |
| 2021-01-01 | Synthetic data for better vision. · sbxrobotics.com | gone |
| 2022-06-01 | YCNeosync Neosync is an open-source anonymization and synthetic data platform. · neosync.dev | acquired |
| 2015-01-01 | YCDabble A synthetic photo studio for e-commerce · dabble.so | gone |
| 2026-01-01 | YCCellType The agentic drug company. We simulate human biology. · celltype.com | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | YCSapien Synthetic populations for decisions · asksapien.ai | still up |
| 2025-06-01 | Synthetic Videos to Simulate Real Users · syntheticsociety.ai | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | Multimodal foundation models to predict uncollected patient biology · strandai.com | still up |
| 2024-06-01 | Converting biology into digital molecular maps · biocartesian.com | still up |
| 2026-01-01 | Infrastructure for Autonomous Science · syntheticsciences.ai | still up |
How this compares
Y Combinator reports its own outcomes, including acquisitions. The other two are judged by asking the domain, so they are not measured the same way and are never averaged together.
The register re-probes every domain it holds. Some that answered last month stop answering. We send that list — what went quiet, and what it was — once a month. Nothing else.
How this was made. Show HN entries are every post from 2021 to 2023 with at least five points that linked to its own domain; code hosts and free hosting are excluded, because a repository outlives the effort behind it. Product Hunt entries needed 100 votes — a far higher bar, so they are the promoted top slice rather than a like-for-like sample. Both are judged by asking the domain whether it still answers: gone means it no longer resolves, refuses the connection, serves a parking page, or says plainly that it shut down. An HTTP error is not counted as gone — a server answering 404 is one somebody still pays for, and an audit of 25 gone-calls found two such sites alive with only a moved homepage. Y Combinator entries use the status YC publishes itself, which is why only those can say acquired. Squatted domains — a lapsed name now serving somebody else's site — are not detected, so these figures run slightly low.