Colossal Raises Another $120M, Announces Pigeon Cell Breakthrough to Help 'De‑Extinct' the Dodo

Dallas-based Colossal Biosciences—a “de-extinction” company that became Texas’ first “decacorn” in January with a valuation of $10.2 billion—announced a new nine-figure add-on to its Series C raise and offered an update on its attempts to bring back the dodo bird.

On the funding side, Colossal announced an additional expansion of $120 million in new funding with participation from USIT, Bob Nelsen, and “Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson, driving its Series C raise up from $200 million to $320 million. Since the company launched in September 2021, it’s has raised just over $555 million in total funding. The latest funding gives the company a valuation of $10.32 billion.

Bringing back the dodo bird

On the dodo side, the famously extinct bird from the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius may be one step closer to strutting the earth again. Colossal said its Avian Genetics Group has established a flock of gene-edited chickens that will serve as potential surrogates for dodos and other endangered bird species.

The company has also generated new genomic resources for exotic and endangered pigeons that will facilitate identification of editing priorities for the dodo de-extinction project. Colossal said these advances “significantly accelerate progress toward dodo de-extinction and broaden tools for advancing biodiversity conservation for birds.” The advances Colossal has made now extend avian PGC culture technology beyond chicken and geese, opening what the company calls “a new frontier in avian reproductive science.”

The breakthroughs follow Colossal’s April announcement of its successful birth of three dire wolves, which it called the world’s “first true de-extinction.” It also follows Colossal’s July-announced plans to “recreate” New Zealand’s giant moa: a 12-foot-tall, 500-pound flightless bird that’s been extinct for six centuries.

“Our avian team’s breakthrough in deriving culture conditions that allow pigeon primordial germ cells to survive long-term is a significant advancement for dodo de-extinction,” Colossal Co-Founder and CEO Ben Lamm said in a statement. “This progress highlights how Colossal’s investment in de-extinction technology is driving discovery and developing tools for both our de-extinction and conservation efforts.”

“Following the global excitement around our recent moa announcement, this new infusion of capital will help us expand our infrastructure and grow our avian genomics team to accelerate not only the new moa de-extinction project, but also continue to track progress on the dodo,” Lamm added.

Laying eggs in Texas

Colossal said it’s using the Nicobar pigeon, the closest living relative of the dodo, as the donor genome for de-extinct dodos. The company established a colony of breeding Nicobar pigeons in Texas that have started laying eggs and, from those embryos.

Beth Shapiro, Colossal’s chief science officer, said the company’s breakthrough in culturing pigeon primordial germ cells “represents a transformative tool for avian conservation.”

“By developing these protocols,” she added, “we’re establishing crucial biobanking capabilities and opening new possibilities for genetic rescue of endangered species.”

Colossal is also gene-editing chickens so that they don’t make their own germ cells. To make a dodo, the avian team plans to inject edited Nicobar pigeon PGCs into these developing chicks, so that they carry pigeon germ cells rather than chicken germ cells. Eventually, a chicken could lay an egg that hatches into a pigeon. Together, the advances set the stage for using surrogate chickens to help bring back dodo relatives—”and eventually the dodo itself.”