SAN FRANCISCO — Over its three-year life, Zymergen has focused on helping genetically engineer tiny microbes, while using advanced computing to help better automate the process.

Now the start-up has attracted a big round of financing to help expand its work.

Zymergen said late Monday that it had raised $130 million in its latest round, led by the Japanese telecommunications giant SoftBank. The company also added two high-profile directors: Steven Chu, the former energy secretary, and Deep Nishar, a senior executive at SoftBank.

Others in the round include the returning investors Data Collective, True Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Innovation Endeavors, Obvious Ventures and Two Sigma Ventures. New investors include Iconiq Capital, Prelude Ventures and Tao Capital Partners.

From the beginning, Zymergen has used robotics and machine learning to better manipulate microbes used in processes like industrial fermentation, making customers’ operations more efficient. But the company’s chief executive, Joshua Hoffman, says its technology will ultimately help in a more important task: producing new materials unconstrained by the limits of traditional petroleum-based manufacturing.