TAXA Biotechnologies YC Application

Summer 2014Inactive

TAXA Biotechnologies went through Y Combinator in the Summer 2014 batch as a Healthcare company. Below: what the company does, who founded it, and its application to YC, reconstructed question by question in the real YC form.

YC batch: Summer 2014
Industry: HealthcareConsumer Health and Wellness
Team size: 2
Status: Inactive
Launched: 2014

Founders

Antony EvansFounder/CEO

What TAXA Biotechnologies does

The TAXA platform has been specifically designed to enable anyone to perform metabolic engineering of plants without stepping into a lab. We provide access to protein engineering, DNA assembly, transient experiments and stable transformation as a service. The best thing is that anything "Powered by TAXA" is designed to be free from expensive regulatory approval, meaning the products are available for sale or distribution to consumers in the United States immediately after they are developed. For a detailed list of the experiments which can be run on our platform please see the Services page. Our vision is a world where bio-engineering is as easy and commonplace as mobile application development is today. Game-changing technologies, like genetic engineering, should not be the exclusive preserve of large corporations and a wealthy elite. Democratizing the tools of creation enables anyone, anywhere, to genetically engineer plants and will unleash a wave of creativity to power an environment where ultimately what we create is limited only by our imagination. The TAXA platform is our next step in the realization of that dream We are also the team behind the first synthetic biology crowdfunding project, raising $484k on Kickstarter to make real glowing plants:

TAXA Biotechnologies's YC application, reconstructed

Y Combinator application

TAXA Biotechnologies, Summer 2014 batch. The real form questions, answered from public data.

Founders2
Company7
Progress7
Idea4
Equity3
Curious2
Batch Preference1

Company

Company name

TAXA Biotechnologies

Describe what your company does in 50 characters or less.

Cheaper, faster, better genetic engineering of plants

What is your company going to make? Please describe your product and what it does or will do.

We built the TAXA platform to let anyone perform metabolic engineering on plants without needing a lab. It offers protein engineering, DNA assembly, transient experiments, and stable transformation as services. Our platform is unique because anything created with it is designed to be free from costly regulatory approval, so products can reach customers in the US immediately after development.

Where do you live now, and where would the company be based after YC?

We live in San Francisco, CA and plan for the company to remain based here after YC.

Explain your decision regarding location.

San Francisco is where we are based because it offers access to biotech talent and a strong startup ecosystem connected to healthcare and genetic engineering.

21 more answers in the full application

Founders, Progress, Idea, Equity, Curious, Batch Preference are in the full version. Create a free account to open it in YC Insights, next to every other YC batch.

See full application

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the real TAXA Biotechnologies YC application?

No. Y Combinator keeps submitted applications private. This is a reconstruction: the real YC form questions, answered from TAXA Biotechnologies's public data (launch notes, founder backgrounds, product description). It shows how a company like TAXA Biotechnologies would present itself to YC, not the text they submitted.