Over the last decade or so, there has been a marked increase in public and private investment in synthetic biology. Several countries have been particularly prompt to invest, and the effects are easier to see in the United States. The pattern of investment shows that the technology is also appealing to several key developing nations, and clearly China has strong ambitions. Several countries have also recognised a need to develop international funding mechanisms for student exchange and for reducing wasteful research overlap and duplication. Several key foundational companies have gone through favourable initial public offerings, most of them in the biofuels and bio-based chemicals sectors. However, such companies struggle with the complexities of scale-up to commercial production, especially in transport fuels. There has been a recent shift from biofuels to bio-based chemicals, which have lower production volumes. There may be a case for countries to offer specialised support to small and medium-sized enterprises, such as provision of access to demonstrator plants, testing and certification facilities.