Ben Lamm
American entrepreneur
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ben Lamm is an American billionaire entrepreneur. He is best known for partnering with George Church on the idea for de-extinction and founding a venture capital-backed startup known as Colossal to support Church's work in the development of genetic engineering and reproductive technology.[1] As of 2026, his net worth is $3.9 billion.[2][3][4]
December 4, 1981
Ben Lamm | |
|---|---|
Lamm in 2017 | |
| Born | Benjamin Edward Lamm December 4, 1981 Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Baylor University |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur |
| Known for | Founding: |
Career
Lamm founded his first company when he was a senior at Baylor University.[5]
He later sold ventures such as Simply Interactive, an e-learning software company (acquired by Agile in 2010); Chaotic Moon Studios, a mobile app company (acquired by Accenture in 2015); Team Chaos, a digital gaming company (acquired by Zynga in 2016); Conversable, a SaaS conversational bot technology (acquired by LivePerson in 2018); and Hypergiant Industries, a machine-learning artificial intelligence (acquired by Trive Capital in 2023),[6] for undisclosed sums upon each company's acquisition.[7][8][9]
At its launch in 2021, Lamm stated that Colossal would "bring back the woolly mammoth" within the next decade.[10][11][12] Lamm secured investments from public figures such as Paris Hilton, Thomas Tull, Tom Brady, Peter Jackson, Chris Hemsworth, and Victor Vescovo and has raised more than $615 million as of March 2026 for a $10.32 billion valuation.[13][14] He used $15 million in seed funding to apply genetic technology such as "clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats" (CRISPR) for Colossal's work on conservation biology.[15][16]
During the 2022 South by Southwest festival, Lamm was on a panel moderated by Richard Garriott that made the case for de-extinction.[17]
In late 2022, Lamm co-founded Form Bio, a software company spun out of Colossal Biosciences. The company aims to develop software to improve the working efficiency of scientists. Form Bio was funded through a $30 million investment deal involving Thomas Tull.[18]
Lamm launched Breaking, a plastic degradation and synthetic biology startup, in April 2024. Gestated at Colossal, Breaking discovered X-32, a microbe that is capable of breaking down various plastics in as little as 22 months while leaving behind carbon dioxide, water and biomass.[19]
He launched The Colossal Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that utilizes Colossal Biosciences-developed technology for conservative efforts globally, in October 2024. The Colossal BioVault is one of its key focuses.[20][21] As of December 2025, the foundation has raised $100 million in total funding.[22][23][24][25]
In April 2025, Lamm led his company's de-extinction work to "revive" the dire wolf. Romulus, Remus, and Khaleesi were announced publicly,[26][27] and he appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience that same month to discuss the dire wolf.[28]
Lamm was recognized on the 2025 Time 100 Next list.[29]
His AI startup, Astromech, closed a $10.5 million funding round in 2026 while operating in stealth mode. The company is building a forecasting engine for biological outcomes and has a $2 billion valuation.[30]
Board and advisory work
Lamm is on the board of directors for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.[31] He is a fellow and on the board of trustees for The Explorers Club.[32] In June 2026, Lamm joined the UAP Science Advisory Council, a newly formed board that includes experts in physical sciences as well as psychology and biology.[33]