Colossal Seeks a $20B to $30B Valuation for De-Extinction
Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas company trying to bring extinct animals back to the planet, is in talks to raise new capital at a valuation of at least $20 billion, Axios reported Monday. The round is expected to price the five-year-old startup somewhere between $20 billion and $30 billion, according to the report, which would double or triple the $10.2 billion valuation it carried after its last raise in early 2025.
Neither the lead investor nor the size of the round has been disclosed. Axios reported that Colossal has been discussing the raise for months and is nearing a resolution. TechCrunch, following the report, framed the effort as an attempt to "double or triple its previous valuation." Colossal did not respond to requests for comment from either outlet.
The most consequential detail is not the headline number. It is the line buried underneath it: Colossal now has revenue. When it raised at $10.2 billion in January 2025, the company was pre-revenue, selling a scientific vision and a set of gene editing capabilities rather than a product anyone paid for. Sources told Axios that changed over the past year.
What Colossal actually sells
Colossal became famous in April 2025 for announcing it had produced animals it described as dire wolves, a claim that drew immediate pushback from evolutionary biologists who argued the animals were edited gray wolves rather than a resurrected species. The publicity was enormous. The underlying platform, which combines ancient DNA reconstruction, multiplex gene editing and reproductive technology, turned out to be more commercially interesting than the mascots.
Four revenue paths are visible from the outside. The first is government and sovereign work. Colossal has supplied conservation and genetic banking technology to the U.S. Interior Department and to partners in the United Arab Emirates, which Wired reported invested $60 million in the company. Dubai''s Museum of the Future is another partner on genetic vaults for endangered species.
The second is spinouts. Colossal has separated at least three businesses out of its core research. Breaking works on plastic degradation. Form Bio, a computational biology platform, has raised $30 million. Astromech, which applies predictive AI modeling to biology and life sciences, was valued at $2 billion in March, according to D Magazine. Chief executive Ben Lamm has said an artificial animal womb business is expected to spin out next, with the technology projected to be ready in 2027. That one has obvious implications for human fertility medicine, which is a far larger market than de-extinction.
The third is conservation services delivered through the nonprofit Colossal Foundation, which recently partnered with the University of Tasmania on vaccine and gene editing work against the transmissible facial cancer devastating Tasmanian devils. The fourth, and the most speculative, is biodiversity credits, a market mechanism modeled on carbon credits that would pay Colossal for reintroducing species into native habitats. That market barely exists today.
Why investors are paying up now
Colossal is raising into a deep tech boom. Capital that spent 2023 and 2024 crowding into application layer software has rotated hard toward compute, energy, defense and biology. Longevity in particular has become a fundable category rather than a fringe one, and Colossal sits at the intersection of gene editing, reproductive technology and climate narrative. Investors buying at $20 billion or more are not underwriting a mammoth. They are underwriting a platform that has demonstrated it can produce novel biology on schedule and then package the tooling into separate companies.
The technical milestones have kept arriving. In May, Colossal said it had hatched chicks from fully artificial eggs, a step toward recreating the South Island giant moa. In late April it added the bluebuck antelope as its sixth de-extinction target. Lamm told Rolling Stone in May that he expects an artificial womb for mammals within a year.
Skeptics have not gone quiet. Critics argue the recreations are closer to marketing than science, that the animals produced are hybrids rather than restored species, and that releasing engineered organisms into ecosystems carries risks nobody has modeled well. Those objections have not slowed the fundraising, which is itself a data point about how the market is pricing narrative right now.
What founders and operators should take from this
Three lessons are portable. First, the jump from pre-revenue to revenue is worth more than any single scientific result. Colossal generated more press in April 2025 than most companies get in a decade and it did not move the valuation. A revenue line did. If you are raising into a hot category, the fastest way to reprice is to prove somebody will pay, even at small volumes.
Second, the spinout is an underrated capital structure. Colossal built one research platform and monetized it four times, letting each derivative business raise from investors with the right risk appetite rather than forcing every bet into a single cap table. Astromech at $2 billion and Form Bio at $30 million attract very different money. Founders sitting on a platform that generates adjacent technology should ask whether those assets are worth more outside the parent.
Third, controversy has an expiration date but the tooling does not. The dire wolf debate cost Colossal credibility with some scientists and bought it enormous distribution. What survived the news cycle was the ancient DNA pipeline, the editing throughput and the reproductive technology. Attention is a bridge, not a business.
The caution is equally clear. A round that triples a paper valuation in 16 months, led by an investor nobody has named, in a category with no comparable exits, is a bet on a story continuing to compound. Colossal has not yet reintroduced a single extinct animal into the wild. Whether $20 billion proves conservative or absurd depends on whether the spinouts, not the mammoths, turn into real companies.
This article is informational and is not investment advice.
Frequently asked questions
How much is Colossal Biosciences worth?
Colossal was valued at $10.2 billion after its January 2025 round. Axios reported it is now in talks to raise at a valuation of at least $20 billion, with the round expected to land between $20 billion and $30 billion. That valuation is not yet final and no lead investor has been identified.
Does Colossal Biosciences make money?
Yes, though the company has not disclosed figures. Sources told Axios that Colossal generated revenue over the past year after being pre-revenue at its previous raise. Known commercial channels include conservation technology work with the U.S. government and UAE partners, plus stakes in spinout companies.
What companies has Colossal spun out?
Three so far: Breaking, focused on plastic degradation; Form Bio, a computational biology platform that has raised $30 million; and Astromech, an AI predictive modeling company for life sciences valued at $2 billion in March. Chief executive Ben Lamm has said an artificial womb business is expected to be next.
Has Colossal actually brought back an extinct species?
No species has been restored to a native habitat. Colossal announced animals it described as dire wolves in April 2025, a claim many biologists dispute on the grounds that the animals are edited gray wolves. The company has since reported hatching chicks from fully artificial eggs and lists six de-extinction target species.
Why are investors funding de-extinction at these valuations?
Because the platform has applications well beyond extinct animals. Gene editing, ancient DNA reconstruction and artificial reproductive technology feed into pharmaceuticals, fertility medicine, conservation contracts and potentially biodiversity credit markets. Investors are underwriting the tooling and the spinouts, not the mammoth itself.