TWG Global leads the latest $200M investment in the de-extinction company’s breakthrough genetic technologies to protect endangered species and restore critical ecosystems worldwide. Best known for its ambitious work to revive the woolly mammoth, Colossal Biosciences is working to restore Earth’s lost biodiversity, “making science fiction into science fact.”
Ben Lamm at the Colossal Lab in Dallas. [Photo: Colossal Biosciences]
by Quincy Preston • Jan 15, 2025
In a fitting twist for a company working to revive extinct species, Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences has achieved its own rare status. The world’s first de-extinction company, founded in 2021, has become Texas’ first “decacorn”—startup speak for a private company valued at more than $10 billion—after securing $200 million in new funding.
The biotech juggernaut with a bold mission to bring back the woolly mammoth and other extinct species joins an elite group, with about 70 private companies worldwide earning the designation as of this month.
Colossal’s Series C funding round, led by TWG Global with participation from other prominent backers, pushes its valuation to $10.2 billion and its total funding to $435 million since launch.
“Our recent successes in creating the technologies necessary for our end-to-end de-extinction toolkit have been met with enthusiasm by the investor community,” said CEO and co-founder Ben Lamm in a statement. “TWG Global and our other partners have been bullish in their desire to help us scale as quickly and efficiently as possible.”
Mark Walter, CEO of TWG Global, said his firm was drawn to Colossal’s position at “the intersection of AI, computational biology and genetic engineering.” TWG Global, a diversified holding company with investments spanning technology, financial services, and sports media, sees potential beyond just de-extinction.
“Colossal has assembled a world-class team that has already driven, in a short period of time, significant technology innovations and impact in advancing conservation,” Walter said.
In under four years, Colossal has built a global scientific operation employing more than 170 scientists across facilities in Dallas, Boston, and Melbourne, Australia.
“The new funding,” Lamm says, “will grow our team, support new technology development, and expand our de-extinction species list, while continuing to allow us to make extinction a thing of the past.”
Colossal Biosciences co-founders Ben Lamm and George Church. [Photo: Colossal]
A new biotech frontier
“Colossal is a revolutionary genetics company making science fiction into science fact,” said Colossal co-founder Church, who serves as Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and holds positions at MIT and Harvard.
“We are creating the technology to build de-extinction science and scale conservation biology, particularly for endangered and at-risk species,” he said. “I could not be more appreciative of the investor support for this important mission.”
It’s a moonshot, for sure, but one grounded in meticulous science.
The company’s flagship work to revive the woolly mammoth, thylacine (Tasmanian tiger), and dodo capture the public imagination, but the projects are advancing technologies with far-reaching implications, Lamm says. The genetic engineering and computational breakthroughs developed for de-extinction are finding broader applications in biodiversity conservation, endangered species preservation, and beyond.
Lamm notes advances in genome editing, stem cell generation, and embryology. Notably, the company has made breakthroughs such as generating the first de novo assembled mammoth genome and engineering elephant stem cells—advances that are already aiding endangered species like elephants. Colossal has also successfully hatched its first chimeric chicks as part of the dodo revival program.
Conservation impact
Beyond its headline-grabbing de-extinction work, Colossal has expanded its conservation efforts through a newly launched foundation. The Colossal Foundation, established as a 501(c)(3) in October 2024, currently supports 48 conservation partners worldwide.
The stakes couldn’t be higher. According to Colossal, the world is losing 27,000 species a year, far outpacing the natural extinction rate. The cascading effects of biodiversity loss—water scarcity, food insecurity, ecosystem collapse—pose existential threats to humanity.
Colossal’s technology aims to combat these crises. For example, its work on the woolly mammoth involves genetic adaptations that could rewild the tundra, slowing permafrost thaw and mitigating climate change. Meanwhile, the dodo project is creating avian genetic tools that could benefit endangered bird species.
Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s Chief Science Officer, emphasized that the company’s technological advances have implications beyond bringing back extinct species. “While the path to de-extinction is complex, each step forward brings us closer to understanding how we might responsibly reintroduce traits from lost species,” she said.
“The technological advances we’re seeing in genetic engineering and synthetic biology are rapidly transforming our understanding of what’s possible in species restoration,” said Shapiro. “The real promise lies not just in the technology, but also in how we might apply these tools to protect and restore endangered species and ecosystems.”
The road ahead
Building Colossal’s vision is no small feat. “It takes a village to raise a child,” as CEO Lamm, noted in a recent interview. “It takes an international consortium to bring back species and save species.” With its team of scientists, over 95 scientific advisors, and more than 40 postdoctoral researchers across 17 global labs, Colossal is orchestrating what Lamm describes as an unprecedented collaborative effort.
Strategic investors like TWG Global, USIT, Animal Capital, and Breyer Capital have taken note, alongside private backers including filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh and biotech heavyweights like Tim Draper and TWG Global’s Walter. “We’ve been fortunate to partner with people who think in 25- to 50-year horizons,” Lamm said, emphasizing the long-term vision required to tackle systemic challenges like biodiversity loss.
This collaboration, Lamm believes, is fueled by the sheer scale and urgency of the problem Colossal is tackling. “Outside of climate change and becoming an interplanetary species, there’s probably not a lot of existential threats as important as the loss of biodiversity,” he said.
For Lamm, the valuation of $10.2 billion—the milestone that makes Colossal Texas’ first decacorn—is secondary to the impact. “The funding is an empowerment to the scientists around the movement,” he explained. “It’s humbling that every single press release we do has multiple world firsts, many of which people said we’d never achieve.”
Beyond de-extinction, he sees the company’s ripple effects driving advances in areas like human health and agriculture.
Looking ahead, milestones on the horizon include breakthroughs like achieving live births of de-extinct species, furthering artificial womb development, and expanding efforts in rewilding. “Success isn’t just creating five dodos,” Lamm remarked. “It’s hundreds of dodos with genetic diversity, thriving back in Mauritius and neighboring islands.”
For Colossal, the ultimate goal is to inspire and enable change—not only in conservation but in how the world approaches grand challenges. “If we can create economic value, make a positive impact, and inspire the next generation,” Lamm said, “then we’re doing something right.”
And in true Texan spirit, it’s all happening here. “We’re doing this in Texas, which is awesome,” Lamm added with a smile, a nod to the state’s growing prominence as a hub for transformative innovation. “I think it shows the world that you can build really valuable companies in Texas.”