When de-extinction startup Colossal Biosciences revealed last year that it was attempting to “resurrect” the dire wolf from genetic material found in fossils, we argued that, despite the controversy surrounding the project, the company was building valuable technologies that justify its $10.2 billion valuation.
Now, roughly 16 months later, the startup is in talks to raise new funding at a $20 billion to $30 billion valuation, Axios reported.
It’s not clear who is leading the new round, or how much capital the five-year-old company is looking to raise. But we do know, according to the report, that Colossal has started generating revenue over the last year.
Colossal co-founder and CEO Ben Lamm told TechCrunch last year that the company sees three revenue streams for the business.
The company has offered its conservation technology to the U.S. government and the UAE, which recently invested $60 million in the company, according to Wired.
Colossal has spun out three startups, including Breaking, a company that helps break down plastics; Form Bio, a computational biology platform that secured $30 million in funding; and Astromech, an AI-driven predictive modeling company focused on biology and life sciences, which was valued at $2 billion in March.
The company, which operates out of a 55,000-square-foot headquarters in Dallas, keeps finding new applications for its core science, too. In late April, it added the bluebuck antelope as its sixth target species, while late last month, its nonprofit conservation arm, the Colossal Foundation, struck a University of Tasmania partnership to help protect Tasmanian devils from a contagious facial cancer.
Lamm told TechCrunch last year that the company also plans to spin off its artificial animal womb technology, which could have applications for human fertility treatment. In May, he told Rolling Stone that the technology is expected to be ready next year.
If the company manages to reintroduce extinct animals, including the woolly mammoth and the dodo bird, to their native habitats, it may eventually generate revenue through the sale of biodiversity credits, a market-based mechanism similar to carbon credits, according to Lamm.
The new fundraising effort comes amid a boom in longevity tech, alternative energy, and other deep-tech sectors.
Colossal didn’t respond to our request for comment.