Jan 15, 2025 - Business

"De-extinction" startup now valued at $10.2 billion

Dan Primack

Illustration of a price tag on a wooly mammoth's tusk. — Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios

Colossal Biosciences, the "de-extinction" company known for its work on the woolly mammoth and dodo, raised $200 million in Series C funding from Mark Walters' TWG Global at a $10.2 billion post-money valuation.

Why it matters: This gives the pre-revenue company more runway to sign contracts with governments that are seeking to protect or replenish their biodiversity, while also letting it expand its de-extinction efforts into more species.

It also will continue to scale up its genome engineering tools and conservation efforts.
State of play: Colossal co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm tells me that the company's artificial womb efforts should allow it to gestate a small mammal ex-utero within the next two years, likely something small like a mouse.
He adds that his dream animal to de-extinct would the Steller's sea cow, which once swam in the kelp forests of the North Pacific and Bering Sea, but acknowledges that it's not atop the current white board.

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"De-extinction" startup now valued at $10.2 billion

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