Ben Lamm

Ben Lamm cofounded Colossal with Harvard geneticist George Church in 2021 to try and bring back the woolly mammoth.

A serial entrepreneur, Lamm previously founded or cofounded five companies, each of which was ultimately acquired. Among them: Hypergiant, purchased by Josh Kushner's VC firm Thrive Capital in 2023.

Colossal has raised $615 million from investors that include TWG Global at a valuation of $10.32 billion.

Lamm believes that governments, which have long budgeted for conservation efforts, will pay Colossal to reintroduce extinct species or to prevent endangered ones from dying off.

Longer term, Lamm sees the potential for biovaults that work like a library of multiple tissue types of once-extinct creatures and critically endangered ones that researchers could rely on.