Colossal Biosciences cofounder and CEO Ben Lamm is worth $3.7 billion following the company's recent fundraise at an eye-popping $10.2 billion valuation. But it has yet to be paid for reviving extinct animals or saving endangered ones.
Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2025/02/20/this-ceo-became-a-billionaire-by-trying-to-bring-back-the-woolly-mammoth/
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Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2025/02/20/this-ceo-became-a-billionaire-by-trying-to-bring-back-the-woolly-mammoth/
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Today on Forbes, meet the billionaire CEO trying to resurrect the woolly mammoth.
00:07Serial entrepreneur Ben Lam and Harvard geneticist George Church started Colossal Biosciences in 2021 to bring back the woolly mammoth.
00:17It's an idea that's equal parts crazy and brilliant, with real-world implications for the environment, climate change, and even healthcare, if they can pull it off.
00:27With the company recently raising $200 million at a valuation of $10.2 billion, led by TWG Global, CEO Lam is now a billionaire, worth $3.7 billion, by Forbes' estimates.
00:42Church, who started work on the concept in his lab many years before it became a company, does not have an equity stake in Colossal.
00:49Church said, quote,
00:58Church, who is 70 years old and known for his wild ideas, had been working on sequencing the prehistoric woolly mammoth's genome since around 2008.
01:08Like many, he had an affection for big furry extinct creatures as a kid, but unlike most, he was also an expert in genomic sequencing.
01:18In 1984, he developed the first genomic sequencing method, which resulted in the first genome sequence for the human pathogen H. pylori, which can cause stomach ulcers.
01:28He's also co-founded some 50 biotech companies.
01:32Church's woolly mammoth dreams started off in his lab, with little thought of turning them into a business.
01:38The idea was so far out there that he didn't even bring it to investors.
01:42Church said, quote,
01:48After giving a talk in 2013, he received $100,000 from Peter Thiel.
01:53It wasn't even close enough to support his research.
01:56He said, quote,
02:05Ben Lamb, who is 43 years old, had previously founded or co-founded five companies, each of which was ultimately acquired.
02:13Among them, Hypergiant, an AI-enabled decision-making software company acquired by Josh Kushner's venture firm Thrive Capital in 2023 for an undisclosed amount.
02:24The vast majority of his net worth comes from Colossal.
02:28While still at Hypergiant in 2019, Lamb reached out to Church after reading an article about his work on the woolly mammoth.
02:35The two met up in Church's lab at Harvard and ultimately launched Colossal in September 2021 with $15 million in seed funding.
02:44The so-called de-extinction work started with digging up the remains of woolly mammoths from the Arctic permafrost and sequencing the prehistoric creature's genome to figure out the difference between it and its closest living relative, the Asian elephant.
02:59Church and his researchers created special tools to search, understand, and compare genomes with the goal of bringing the tusked Ice Age giant back to life.
03:09The company is using genetic engineering techniques that would essentially result in a mammoth-elephant hybrid that could withstand the cold.
03:17Woolly mammoths, which are believed to have weighed between 6 and 8 tons, are considered important because they are thought to have contributed to the preservation of the northern grasslands by grazing and trampling trees,
03:29slowing down permafrost thaw, and helping keep organic carbon stored deep below the surface, an important factor in preventing climate catastrophe.
03:38Colossal hopes to create a woolly mammoth calf by 2028, it previously said 2027.
03:45But it's not the only extinct animal the company is targeting. The dodo and the Tasmanian tiger are also on the agenda.
03:52While it does not yet have revenue from its de-extinction efforts, it has spun out two additional startups, computational biology platform FormBio in 2022 and biological recycling company Breaking in 2024.
04:07Colossal's lack of revenue means the company's eye-popping $10.2 billion valuation is based on investors' belief in the future potential of this Jurassic Park-like science rather than its existing business.
04:20For full coverage, check out Amy Feldman's piece on Forbes.com.
04:26This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes. Thanks for tuning in.
04:37Transcription by ESO. Translation by —