Mascoma raises $50,000,000

Mascoma Corp., a Cambridge, Mass.-based provider of cellulosic biomass-to-ethanol development and production, has raised $30 million in equity funding and $20 million in debt funding.  Mascoma was founded in 2005 by Dartmouth professors Lee Lynd and Charles Wyman. The company is developing enzymes for the conversion of organic material (wood, straws, fuel energy crops, paper pulp and agricultural waste products) to biofuels, such as ethanol.  In 2006, the company signed a $20 million contract with the state of New York to build a biomass-to-ethanol demonstration plant in Rochester.