Analysis
XPRIZE founder Peter Diamandis and Yianni Psaltis, who holds a doctorate in cancer biology from Georgetown University, have closed the first fund of NeoGenesis Capital, a venture firm built to invest in Colossal Biosciences and in companies built on or incubated from Colossal's technology platform, according to Dealroom. The fund's size was not disclosed. Psaltis, named managing partner, framed the thesis directly: "Biology is the next programmable substrate, and Colossal built the operating system."
Diamandis wrote one of the first checks into Colossal in 2021. The company was founded by Ben Lamm and Harvard geneticist George Church and built its name on de-extinction work, including the dire wolf and woolly mouse projects, running on a platform that combines genomic analysis, AI-driven modeling, multiplex gene editing, and biological scaling. Pulse has covered Colossal's AI platform expansion before, including its new AI tooling aimed at mapping a path back to the dodo, and has reported Colossal in talks for a valuation between $20 billion and $30 billion.
A Fund Built Around One Platform
The structure is unusual for venture: most funds diversify across unrelated bets precisely to avoid the concentration risk NeoGenesis is choosing on purpose. Pulse2 describes the firm's focus as sitting "at the intersection of superintelligence and synthetic biology." NeoGenesis has also named Oliver Trevena, a co-founder of the beverage company Caliwater who has helped build more than 30 brands, as head of culture — a hire that signals the firm is investing as much in its own identity and network as in capital deployment.
Target sectors include longevity, fertility, agriculture, environmental remediation, pandemic prevention, and AI-native genetic design. Expected portfolio companies span drought- and disease-resistant crops, pathogen-monitoring systems, enzymes engineered to break down microplastics, and artificial-womb technology aimed at conservation rather than human reproduction — all framed as applications downstream of Colossal's core genomic-editing stack rather than standalone bets.
The concentration risk is real: a fund built around one company's roadmap rises or falls with that company's execution, and Colossal's own valuation talks remain unresolved — Pulse has reported figures as high as $20 billion to $30 billion, but nothing is finalized, and a platform-specific fund has no obvious exit if Colossal's trajectory stalls.
NeoGenesis has not said when it will close additional capital beyond this initial close, or name a first check written outside of Colossal itself.
