XPRIZE founder Diamandis launches NeoGenesis Capital to back Colossal's programmable biology
What's the deal? NeoGenesis CapitalDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, a new venture firm founded by XPRIZEDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → founder Peter Diamandis and Yianni Psaltis, has announced the initial close of its first fund. The fund size was not disclosed.
What's the endgame? NeoGenesis will invest in Colossal Biosciences and companies built on or incubated from Colossal's technology platform. Targets span longevity, fertility, agriculture, environmental remediation, pandemic prevention, and AI-native genetic design.
The firm's thesis is that advances in AI and synthetic biology are making biological systems programmable. "Biology is the next programmable substrate, and Colossal built the operating system," said Psaltis, who serves as managing partner and holds a doctorate in cancer biology from Georgetown University.
Why now? Diamandis wrote one of the first checks into Colossal in 2021. "Biology has become programmable, and the companies built on that platform will define the next few decades," he said.
Colossal, founded by Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church, is best known for de-extinction work, including projects involving the dire wolf and woolly mouse. Its platform combines genomic analysis, AI-driven modeling, multiplex gene editing, organism development, and biological scaling.
NeoGenesis expects companies from the platform to pursue drought- and disease-resistant crops, pathogen monitoring, enzymes that break down microplastics, and artificial womb technologies for conservation.
Who's joining? The firm appointed Oliver Trevena as head of culture. An entrepreneur, investor, and co-founder of beverage company CaliwaterDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Trevena has helped develop more than 30 brands and will focus on NeoGenesis' cultural identity and strategic relationships.
The signal: By concentrating on a single platform rather than spreading across the sector, NeoGenesis is betting that one company's infrastructure can seed an entire wave of programmable biology startups — a focused play on a frontier still defined more by ambition than revenue.
Read more: pulse2.com
Image credit: neogenesis capital
