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Colossal Biosciences’ much-publicized $200 million figure was the company’s January 2025 financing announcement for research linked to a woolly-mammoth proxy, the thylacine and the dodo. It was a funding milestone, not evidence that any extinct animal has been recreated.
The financing later grew: Colossal said in September 2025 that it had raised an additional $120 million, bringing the Series C total to $320 million. The company’s projects remain experimental, and its stated objective is to engineer close approximations of extinct animals rather than produce exact clones.
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What the $200 million announcement covered
In January 2025, Colossal announced a $200 million Series C for work associated with its mammoth, thylacine and dodo programs. Axios reported that the round came from TWG Global at a $10.2 billion post-money valuation. “Post-money” means the stated company valuation after that financing, not money that Colossal raised or revenue it earned.
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The later financing update
| Announcement | Financing reported | Valuation reported | What it establishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| January 2025 | $200 million Series C | $10.2 billion post-money, reported by Axios | The original headline amount and valuation attached to the round |
| September 2025 | Additional $120 million; $320 million total Series C, according to Colossal | $10.32 billion, according to Colossal | The company’s later update to the size and valuation of the round |
The $200 million and $320 million figures therefore describe different points in the same financing story. Neither figure demonstrates that a mammoth, thylacine or dodo has been brought back.
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What “de-extinction” means here
Colossal’s FAQ says its labs use “CRISPR-based genetic engineering and other technologies to reproduce close approximations (not clones) of extinct species’ genomes in order to restore the species to life.” That distinction matters. A clone would aim to copy an existing genome; Colossal’s stated approach edits living relatives or host systems to create an animal with selected traits associated with an extinct species.
For the mammoth, Colossal describes the goal as “a cold-resistant elephant with all of the core biological traits of the woolly mammoth.” That is a genetically engineered elephant proxy, not an exact replica of a woolly mammoth and not a specimen recovered intact from ancient DNA.
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How the three programs differ
| Program | Biological approach described by Colossal | Host or surrogate | Stated bottleneck |
|---|---|---|---|
| Woolly mammoth | Sequence mammoth genomes, identify and edit selected traits, then pursue gestation. | An elephant relative would provide the reproductive context. | Turning genome edits into a viable, healthy pregnancy and animal with the intended traits. |
| Thylacine | Sequence the thylacine and a living dasyurid relative; establish marsupial cell lines; edit hundreds of loci into a host genome. | A marsupial surrogate, followed by development involving an external pouch. | Reproducing complex marsupial development and determining which edits produce the intended phenotype. |
| Dodo | Compare dodo and host genomes and predict mutations linked to appearance and other traits. | A surrogate system; the cited company description does not identify a specific species. | Predicting mutation effects and producing a viable bird with dodo-like characteristics. |
Colossal itself cautions that predictions about mutation effects, adaptation and speciation are imperfect. The three projects cannot be ranked by likelihood of success from the milestones reported so far.
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The mammoth pathway begins with genome sequencing and computational selection of traits associated with cold adaptation and mammoth appearance. Colossal then describes editing elephant cells and developing a gestation strategy using an elephant relative. The intended result is a cold-resistant elephant carrying a chosen set of mammoth-like biological traits.
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Thylacine: a marsupial development problem
The thylacine effort has a different reproductive challenge. Colossal says it is comparing the extinct thylacine with a living dasyurid relative, creating marsupial cell lines and editing hundreds of genomic locations. Any resulting embryo would require a surrogate and a workable transition to the external-pouch stages that marsupials use after birth.
Dodo: reconstructing traits in a bird host
For the dodo, Colossal describes comparing the dodo genome with that of a host bird, predicting which mutations may influence phenotype and using a surrogate system. The company’s approach is therefore a trait reconstruction in a living host, not a conventional clone.
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What the reported milestones show
Artificial-egg work
In 2026, Colossal said 26 chickens had hatched using its artificial-egg system as a step toward dodo and moa work. The announcement did not include a peer-reviewed paper or comparative hatch-rate data. The result is a company-reported engineering milestone, not proof that the system can hatch a dodo proxy or support an extinct-species restoration program.
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Artificial-womb work with dunnarts
In May 2026, Colossal said it had made progress through all three stages of an artificial-womb system using fat-tailed dunnarts. The company said it had bridged the transition between stages two and three, while bridging stages one and two remained the final step. That account is also company-reported; the available reporting does not independently verify the outcome.
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What remains unproven
Scientific feasibility
The Associated Press reported scientists’ skepticism about whether de-extinction is technically feasible. Reconstructing a genome is only one part of the problem: researchers would also need reliable cell editing, embryo development, gestation, birth, survival and long-term health. The required traits may depend on many genes and on developmental conditions that ancient DNA cannot fully reveal.
Whether bringing back a proxy would be desirable
Scientists have also questioned the desirability of de-extinction. A proxy would not automatically recreate the extinct species’ historical ecosystem, social behavior or genetic diversity. Releasing such animals would raise separate questions about habitat, disease, welfare and interactions with living species.
No return to the wild has been demonstrated
Nothing in the reported financing or milestones shows that a mammoth, thylacine or dodo proxy exists, has reached adulthood or has been released into the wild. The announcements describe research plans and intermediate laboratory steps.
How to read the money and valuation
The financing indicates that investors supplied substantial capital to a long-horizon biotechnology program. It does not establish a commercial product, predictable revenue or a successful endpoint. Earlier 2025 coverage described Colossal as pre-revenue at that time; that was a time-specific description, not a current financial statement.
For readers evaluating the headline, the useful distinction is simple: $200 million was the initial January 2025 raise, $320 million was Colossal’s later reported total, and the $10.2 billion and $10.32 billion figures were reported post-money valuations at those respective points. The biological outcome remains an open research question.
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