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Colossal seeks funding at up to $30B valuation
Colossal Biosciences is reportedly raising fresh capital at a $20 billion to $30 billion valuation, up from $10.2 billion about 16 months ago.
Image: TechCrunch
Roughly 16 months after being valued at $10.2 billion, Colossal Biosciences is reportedly in talks to raise new funding at a valuation between $20 billion and $30 billion, according to Axios.
The five-year-old de-extinction startup drew wide attention last year when it said it was trying to “resurrect” the dire wolf using genetic material recovered from fossils. At the time, TechCrunch argued that, controversy aside, the company was building technology valuable enough to support its valuation.
Details of the new round are still unclear. Axios said it is not known who would lead the financing or how much money Colossal aims to raise. What is clear, according to the report, is that the company has begun generating revenue over the past year.
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Ben Lamm, Colossal’s co-founder and CEO, previously told TechCrunch that the business sees three revenue streams. One is selling its conservation technology. According to Wired, the company has offered that tech to the U.S. government and the UAE, which recently invested $60 million in Colossal.
The company has also spun out three startups:
- Breaking, which works on breaking down plastics
- Form Bio, a computational biology platform that raised $30 million
- Astromech, an AI-driven predictive modeling company for biology and life sciences that was valued at $2 billion in March
Lamm also told TechCrunch last year that Colossal plans to spin off its artificial animal womb technology, which could also be used in human fertility treatment. In May, he told Rolling Stone that the technology is expected to be ready next year.
If Colossal succeeds in reintroducing extinct species including the woolly mammoth and the dodo bird to their native habitats, Lamm has said the company could eventually make money from biodiversity credits, a market-based mechanism similar to carbon credits.
The reported fundraising push comes as longevity tech, alternative energy, and other deep-tech sectors continue to attract investor interest. Colossal did not respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
Frontier Editor
Dan is our resident futurist, covering electric mobility, space exploration, and the smart home. He's interested in atoms just as much as bits. Whether it's a new battery chemistry, a reusable rocket, or a protocol that finally makes IoT devices talk to each other, Dan breaks down the engineering that pushes humanity forward.
via TechCrunch
