A biotechnology startup that promises to resurrect woolly mammoths is now the first "de-extinction unicorn,” with a valuation said to be over a $1 billion before bringing back a single lost species. Colossal Biosciences, the Dallas-based startup, is making public a new round of investment this week that will help fund its effort to bring back perhaps the most famously extinct animal of them all: the dodo.
Reintroducing mammoths to Alaska or dodos to Mauritius sounds unrealistic, even silly, and has drawn skepticism from paleo-geneticists and other experts who worry that the effects of de-extinction would be unpredictable. Yet Colossal has continued to draw support from investors, including celebrities, and on Tuesday announced another $150 million for a total of $225 million since 2021. A person familiar with the company said with the latest round the startup is valued at about $1.5 billion.
For some investors, a live dodo is less important than the scientific breakthroughs generated in the push to de-extinction. "Along the lines of being able to bring a species back, we're going to learn things we can't learn in a wet lab,' said Thomas Tull, a tech investor who produced the movie "Jurassic World" and made money investing in scrubs company Figs. His United States Innovative Technology Fund led the latest round. "When you're doing big things like this, who knows what you're going to discover along the way.”