In a big win for client and privately held biotechnology company Viridos–which harnesses the power of photosynthesis to create transformative solutions to mitigate climate change–the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-BIZ) has awarded the innovative company a prestigious California Competes Grant. Viridos succeeded through multiple elimination rounds of applicants in total asking for $3.4 billion dollars in requests with only $120 million in funding available. After two elimination rounds, Viridos was one of eight successful grant awardees in the state.

Said Viridos CEO Oliver Fetzer, PhD:

Viridos is committed to keeping California as the hub of its strategy by bringing low-carbon and algae-based sustainable heavy transportation fuels to the commercial marketplace. This California Competes Grant allows us to continue our pledge towards helping industries in the heavy transportation sector significantly decrease their carbon footprints.

A longtime client of the leader of Procopio’s Energy and Environmental Law practices, John Lormon, Viridos’ expanded project will bring the investment of high-quality jobs including scientists, engineers, and technicians to California’s Imperial Valley. According to the company’s press release, Viridos will produce an investment of nearly $75 million including total wages, capital, and induced economic benefits. The expanded Imperial Valley site will further Viridos’ mission of continued innovation by producing lab-to-field results to reduce heavy-transportation carbon emissions and increase the use of algae-based biofuels.

California Competes Deputy Director Scott Dosick said:

We especially appreciate supporting companies like Viridos that choose to invest in areas such as Imperial County that have suffered too long from chronically high unemployment and poverty levels.

Viridos’ understanding of algal genetics underpins its initial deployment of a scalable platform to produce low-carbon intensity biofuels for aviation, commercial trucking, and maritime shipping. Its scientists and engineers are shaping new pathways toward a sustainable bioeconomy.