Cathie Wood's Ark Invest just doubled a multi-million-share position in a SPAC merging with Ginkgo Bioworks

• Cathie Wood's Ark Invest is quickly building a position in a SPAC that plans to merge with Ginkgo Bioworks.
• The Ark Disruptive Innovation and Genomic Revolution ETFs doubled its stake in the SPAC on Monday, buying 7 million shares.
• Ark Invest now owns 14 million shares of the SPAC worth about $150 million as of Monday.
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Cathie Wood's confidence in a synthetic biology company is growing as Ark Invest builds a multi-million share position in Soaring Eagle Acquisition Company, a SPAC set to merge with Ginkgo Bioworks.

On Monday, Ark Invest's Disruptive Innovation and Genomic Revolution ETFs purchased a total 7 million shares of the SPAC, bringing its total position to 14.5 million shares. While the $150 million position is small relative to its other holdings, what is notable is how quickly Ark is building its position.

ARK Invest first began purchasing shares of the SPAC on August 3, according to its daily trading updates.

Ginkgo Bioworks is a synthetic biology company that uses genomic editing to design and program cells for industrial applications. Ginkgo is going public at a pre-money valuation of $15 billion, and expects to raise $2.5 billion in cash from the SPAC merger.

ARK Invest is one of many institutional investors that committed to Ginkgo's $775 million PIPE financing, which is tied to the completion of the SPAC merger. The company, founded by four MIT students and their professor in 2009, expects to double its revenue in 2021 to $150 million.

This won't be Ark Invest's first investment in a synthetic biology company. Zymergen is a holding of Ark Invest, which recently plunged 77% after it said production issues of its Hyaline product for foldable displays will hamper revenue this year and next.

But Ark Invest kept the faith in Zymergen following its plunge and tripled its position in the company.

"While our confidence has been reduced in its short-term outlook, we believe that Zymergen's platform holds deep intrinsic value and that the total addressable market for products produced with synthetic biology is vast, enough so for multiple approaches and models to flourish simultaneously," Ark said in an e-mail to clients on Friday.

Ark Invest's thinking on Zymergen likely spills over into Ginkgo Bioworks, which expects to complete its SPAC merger in the third quarter of this year.

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