Company · Biotech · De-Extinction
Colossal
Colossal
Biosciences
The Dallas company betting $10 billion that extinction doesn't have to be permanent.
The Dallas company betting $10 billion that extinction doesn't have to be permanent.
Colossal Biosciences occupies a strange corner of the biotech map: a venture-funded company whose flagship product is an animal that has not existed for thousands of years. Founded in 2021 by serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, the Dallas firm builds genetic engineering and reproductive technology aimed at "de-extinction" - reconstructing the genomes of lost species and editing their traits back into living relatives.
The headline projects read like a natural-history museum brought to life: the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, the dodo, and - announced in April 2025 - the dire wolf. Three gene-edited pups named Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi put the company on front pages worldwide and, alongside a $200 million Series C, helped push its valuation to $10.2 billion, making Colossal the first decacorn headquartered in Texas.
What separates Colossal from a thought experiment is that it treats de-extinction as an engineering pipeline with commercial by-products. The tools it invents to revive a mammoth - genome assembly, multiplex gene editing, artificial gestation, industrial cloning - can be spun out, licensed, or applied to living endangered species. That is the quiet argument beneath the spectacle.
It is also a company that invites scrutiny. Critics, including some IUCN specialists, argue the dire wolf pups are gene-edited grey wolves rather than true de-extinctions. Colossal has largely engaged the debate in public - a posture that is itself part of how the company operates.
Colossal sequences and reconstructs the genomes of extinct species from ancient DNA, identifies the genes responsible for key traits, and edits those traits into the genome of a close living relative - a grey wolf for the dire wolf, an Asian elephant for the mammoth. It then develops the reproductive technology, including cloning and artificial gestation, to bring an animal to term.
Biodiversity loss. Colossal frames de-extinction not as a novelty but as a proving ground for tools that can rescue living species from extinction - genetic rescue, biobanking, disease-resistance engineering, and assisted reproduction for animals with dangerously small populations.
Conservation groups, government and academic research partners, and wildlife agencies - plus, through its spinouts, biotech and enterprise software users and clients of ViaGen's cloning services.
Ancient-DNA genomics, multiplex CRISPR editing, marsupial and avian reproductive biology, and computational biology - backed by 95+ scientific advisors including chief science officer Beth Shapiro.
Unlike single-species conservation efforts, Colossal builds a reusable de-extinction toolkit and commercializes the by-products, letting flagship "moonshots" fund broadly useful technology.
The bet isn't a mammoth. It's a toolkit - one that can bring back the lost and defend the living.
Editing cold-adaptation traits into the Asian elephant genome. "Woolly mice" carrying mammoth-inspired traits served as an early proof of concept.
Three pups - Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi - produced by editing grey wolf cells with dire wolf genetic information.
Near-complete genome reconstruction plus a prototype artificial marsupial uterus to gestate embryos of the Tasmanian tiger.
Genome reconstruction and primordial germ-cell research opening gene editing across a wider range of bird species.
An AI-driven computational biology platform for managing and analyzing large scientific datasets.
Commercializing a discovered microbe capable of degrading plastics within roughly two years.
Applies the platform to living species - red wolf, northern white rhino, vaquita - and runs the world's largest distributed biobank.
Animal-cloning business bringing high-success-rate reproductive capability in-house at industrial scale.
A New Zealand giant-bird revival project backed by filmmaker Peter Jackson.
Colossal is, at its core, venture-funded research. But it monetizes its platform along the way: spinning out standalone companies, licensing technology, forming government and research partnerships, and - since acquiring ViaGen - generating revenue from cloning services.
That structure answers the obvious question about any moonshot: where does the money come from before the headline product exists? Reported revenue remains small relative to the valuation, which is built on the platform's long-term promise rather than current sales.
Colossal sits at the intersection of synthetic biology, conservation genomics, and reproductive technology. Its closest peer is the non-profit Revive & Restore; more broadly it competes with academic ancient-DNA labs and CRISPR firms - and with traditional conservation programs for the same funding and attention. Its edge is scale, capital, and a willingness to pursue the spectacular.
Series C led by TWG Global (Mark Walter, Thomas Tull). Investors across rounds include Tim Draper, Tony Robbins, Paris Hilton, USIT, Bob Nelsen and Peter Jackson. Total raised ~$695M.
Ben Lamm and George Church launch the company in September with a $15M seed round and a mission to de-extinct the woolly mammoth.
Raises $60M, adds the thylacine project, and spins out computational-biology company Form Bio.
A $150M Series B pushes the valuation past $1B as Colossal announces its dodo de-extinction effort.
Launches its non-profit Foundation and the world's largest distributed biobank, and spins out plastic-degradation startup Breaking.
Announces three gene-edited dire wolf pups and "woolly mice," raises a $200M Series C plus a $120M extension, and reaches a ~$10.3B valuation.
Announces a Dubai biovault and continues advancing the mammoth program amid growing scientific scrutiny.
A serial technology entrepreneur who brought the commercial discipline - funding rounds, spinouts, acquisitions - that turned a scientific ambition into a decacorn.
A Harvard geneticist whose lab helped pioneer modern genome sequencing, supplying the scientific foundation behind Colossal's editing work.
The dire wolf pups are Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi - the last a nod to Game of Thrones.
Colossal proved its mammoth science on rodents, creating fluffy "woolly mice" with cold-adapted traits.
Investors include Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Tiger Woods and filmmaker Peter Jackson.
A side discovery during enzyme research became Breaking, whose microbe degrades plastic in under two years.
It acquired ViaGen, the firm reported to have cloned Barbra Streisand's dogs.
Its biobank is the world's largest distributed effort to store endangered-species DNA.
It develops genetic engineering and reproductive technology to "de-extinct" lost species like the woolly mammoth, thylacine, dodo and dire wolf, and applies the same tools to conserving endangered animals.
In April 2025 it announced three pups created by editing grey wolf DNA. Some scientists argue they are gene-edited grey wolves rather than true dire wolves, and the definition is debated.
It has raised roughly $695M across seed through Series C rounds and is valued at about $10.2-10.3 billion, making it Texas' first decacorn.
It is primarily venture-funded R&D, but it commercializes its platform through spinouts (Form Bio, Breaking), partnerships, licensing, and the acquired ViaGen cloning business.
It was co-founded in 2021 by entrepreneur and CEO Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.