NEW YORK – Ginkgo Bioworks reported after the close of the market on Monday that its first quarter 2022 revenues grew 282 percent year over year.
In the three months ended March 31, Ginkgo booked $168.4 million in revenues, compared to $44.1 million a year ago, beating the consensus Wall Street estimate of $105.7 million.
"We added 11 new programs in our cell programming business in the first quarter of 2022, including in many novel areas of work, and realized record revenues in our biosecurity business," Ginkgo CEO and Cofounder Jason Kelly said in a statement. "We believe we are well positioned for this market downturn and expect to continue to invest in platform growth, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions, while ensuring we maintain a healthy balance sheet."
On a conference call with investors following the release of results, Kelly noted that the firm has 64 active cell programs with 32 different customers, with strong growth coming from pharma and biotech.
He also highlighted a new deal with Bayer that would see Ginkgo acquire Bayer's agricultural biologicals site and team in West Sacramento, California and that includes a multiyear collaboration between the two firms focusing on microbe-based nitrogen fixation. The firms will also absorb different parts of Joyn Bio, a joint venture between them that launched in 2017. Financial and other details of the deal were not disclosed.
Foundry, or cell engineering, revenues were $21.5 million, down from $22.5 million in Q1 2021. Biosecurity service — mostly COVID-19 testing — revenues from the firm's Concentric subsidiary were $133.0 million, up from $15.8 million a year ago, while biosecurity product revenues were $13.9 million, up from $5.8 million a year ago.
Foundry fees were impacted by the decision to "tune" deal structures to "optimize for future downstream value share" in exchange for lower upfront fees, CFO Mark Dmytruk said.
Ginkgo Bioworks' net loss for the quarter totaled $592.6 million, or $.37 per share, compared to a net loss of $74.8 million, or $.06 per share, in Q1 2021, missing the consensus Wall Street estimate of a $.03 loss per share. Net loss included a $640,000 loss on foreign currency translation. The number of weighted average shares of common stock used to compute Q1 net loss per share was approximately 1.61 billion, compared to approximately 1.29 billion in Q1 2021.
The Boston-based firm went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition corporation in September, raising $1.63 billion.
Ginkgo reported $322.7 million in R&D expenses for the quarter, up more than fivefold from $59.6 million a year ago, driven by stock-based compensation expenses. Excluding stock-based compensation, R&D expenses were approximately $56 million, Dmytruk said. Biosecurity R&D expenses were lower by about $23 million, partially offset by an expected increase in Foundry R&D, he added. SG&A expenses were $434.8 million, up more than twentyfold from $17.9 million a year ago, also driven by stock-based compensation expenses. Excluding stock-based compensation, they were approximately $42 million, Dmytruk said.
As disclosed in the fourth quarter of 2021, Ginkgo's stock-based compensation was due to "catch-up" expenses resulting from the firm's historical practice of not booking restricted stock unit grants.
As of March 31, Ginkgo had $1.49 billion in cash and cash equivalents.
For 2022, Ginkgo revised its guidance for total revenues to between $375 million and $390 million, up from previous guidance of $325 million to $340 million, with Foundry revenues between $165 million and $180 million and biosecurity revenues of at least $210 million. The firm reiterated that it expects to add 60 new cell programs in 2022. Dmytruk noted that Concentric's contracts for pooled testing for K-12 schools are funded through the end of the school year but that there is "significant uncertainty in general" in the biosecurity market.
In Tuesday morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Ginkgo Bioworks were up 3 percent at $2.50.