| Ben Lamm | |
| Birth Name: | Benjamin Edward Lamm |
| Birth Date: | 4 December 1981 |
| Birth Place: | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Baylor University |
| Occupation: | Serial entrepreneur |
| Known For: | Founding: |
Ben Lamm is an American serial entrepreneur 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]
In 2019, Lamm 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.[2] [3] At its launch in 2021, he received media attention for claiming that Colossal would "bring back the woolly mammoth" within the next decade. Lamm secured investments from public figures such as Paris Hilton, Thomas Tull, Tom Brady, Peter Jackson, and Chris Hemsworth, and has raised more than $235 million as of October 2024.[4] [5] [6] [7]
During the 2022 South by Southwest festival, Lamm was on a panel moderated by Richard Garriott that made the case for de-extinction.[8]
Lamm founded his first company when he was a senior at Baylor University.[9] He 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 Thrive Capital in 2023),[10] for undisclosed sums upon each company's acquisition.[11] [12] [13]
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.[14]
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.[15]
In October 2024, Lamm launched The Colossal Foundation, a 501(c)(3) that utilizes Colossal Biosciences-developed technology for conservative efforts globally. Biobanking is one of its key focuses.[16] [17]
Lamm currently is a member of the Board of Trustees for The Explorers Club.[18]