This Billion-Dollar Startup Wants to Bring Back the Dodo
Colossal Biosciences is adding the famously dead bird to a de-extinction agenda that already includes the woolly mammoth
A rendering of a dodo in a forest. The last time the species was seen alive was in the 1600s, and now Colossal Biosciences says it will one day bring the birds back.
Source: Colossal BiosciencesA 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.