Colossal Secures Hundreds of Millions, Targets Bluebuck
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- Colossal raised hundreds of millions of dollars from venture capitalists, the CIA, and Peter Thiel, among others, to fund its synthetic‑biology programs.
- Colossal announced in April a new “de‑extinction” effort targeting the bluebuck, an African antelope that vanished around 1800, and said its technology can be applied to current antelope conservation.
- Ben Lamm said roughly 30 % of antelope species are threatened with extinction and that the company will open‑source its reproductive tools for free to the worldwide conservation community.
- Colossal developed an “ovum pickup” technique that uses ultrasound and a needle to flush immature egg cells from live animals, a method Lamm describes as a “completely novel technique” for oocyte collection.
- Douglas McCauley criticized the company’s de‑extinction hype for diverting attention from existing endangered species, but praised the ovum pickup method and the firm’s global biobanking initiative as useful conservation resources.
- Colossal promotes a global biobanking program to preserve the genetic records of at‑risk species for future scientific use.
Why it matters: The influx of capital enables Colossal to scale its reproductive‑technology platform, which it will release free of charge, giving conservationists a new tool for at‑risk antelopes, while critics warn that the company’s de‑extinction branding diverts public and policy focus from current extinction emergencies.
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