Pembient
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biotechnology |
| Founded | January 2015 |
| Founder | Mathew Markus, George Bonaci |
| Headquarters | Seattle , United States |
| Products | Synthetic rhino horn |
Pembient is a biotechnology firm headquartered in Seattle, Washington, established in January 2015 by Mathew Markus and George Bonaci. The organization specializes in developing bioengineered wildlife substitutes, with a primary focus on producing synthetic rhino horn to address the issue of illegal poaching worldwide.
History
The inception of Pembient followed Markus and Bonaci's investigation into reverse engineering wildlife materials, concentrating on rhino horn due to the critical poaching emergency. In 2014, South Africa experienced the loss of more than 1,200 rhinos to poachers, while the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) officially declared the western black rhino extinct. Markus had originally envisioned the concept of recreating rhino horn through reverse engineering approximately ten years prior, driven by concerns over the illicit trade.
Pembient became part of the first cohort at IndieBio in San Francisco in January 2015, a three-month accelerator program offering $50,000 in funding along with guidance for startups utilizing synthetic biology technologies.
In August 2017, Pembient initiated an initial coin offering (ICO) for PembiCoin, a blockchain-based token that entitles owners to receive one gram of lab-grown horn by 2022. By 2018, the company remained committed to its approach of saturating the market with artificial rhino horn to alleviate poaching demand.
Mission
Pembient's objective is to manufacture synthetic alternatives to rhino horn and elephant ivory that are competitively priced below illegal market rates, aiming to protect endangered species from exploitation. Current initiatives involve producing synthetic rhino horn through methods that mimic authentic rhino DNA. Founder Bonaci has also suggested potential growth into tissue engineering or other commercially viable biochemical ventures.