Colossal Biosciences Reportedly Eyeing $24 Billion Valuation in New Funding Talks

Dallas-based de-extinction venture Colossal Biosciences is in discussions to secure fresh capital at a valuation between $23 billion and $24 billion, according to reporting from Axios.

If completed, the deal would represent a massive step up in valuation for the five-year-old company, co-founded by serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church. While Colossal first captured public attention with its ambitious mission to resurrect the woolly mammoth and other lost species, prospective backers are reportedly focusing on the commercial viability of its underlying technology stack.

That platform spans advanced gene-editing infrastructure, reproductive biology tools, and a growing portfolio of proprietary intellectual property. Rather than relying exclusively on long-term de-extinction milestones, Colossal has sought to monetize its research through commercial conservation services and independent software spinouts.

Among those corporate offshoots are Form Bio, a computational biology platform designed to streamline cell and gene therapy development, and Astromech, an artificial intelligence company focused on predictive modeling. These commercial vehicles allow Colossal to generate near-term enterprise software revenue while continuing its core genetic engineering projects.

The Platform Play

The prospective multi-billion-dollar valuation highlights a shift in how deep-tech investors evaluate high-risk biological moonshots. By packaging high-cost, speculative science inside an enterprise pipeline that can spin off AI and bioinformatics tools, Colossal has framed de-extinction not merely as an ecological ambition, but as an R&D engine for industrial biotechnology.

Whether that approach justifies a valuation on par with major established biotech players remains an open question, particularly as synthetic biology startups face heightened scrutiny over clinical utility and recurring software revenue. Nonetheless, the reported talks suggest venture capital appetite remains strong for platforms bridging foundation-level genomics with machine learning applications.