Thousands of years ago, amid a warming climate, the woolly mammoth vanished into extinction.

Now, serial entrepreneur Ben Lamm is teaming up with world-renowned geneticist and serial biotech entrepreneur George Church, Ph.D., to bring the woolly mammoth back to life.

That’s the mission behind Colossal, a bioscience and genetics company co-founded by Church and Lamm and a handful of other entrepreneurs that launched Monday.

And they are not stopping with the woolly mammoth. They plan to apply genetic engineering to save other species from extinction or to bring back to life those that have already died off.

Lamm, an Austin native who splits his time between Austin and Dallas, has a track record of tackling big problems. Lamm, 39, most recently co-founded Hypergiant Technologies, an artificial intelligence company based in Austin. In May, he stepped aside as CEO to focus on his new venture. Previously, Lamm founded and served as CEO of Conversable acquired by LivePerson and co-founder and CEO of Chaotic Moon Studios acquired by Accenture and Team Chaos, acquired by Zynga.

Colossal plans to use CRISPR technology to apply advanced gene-editing techniques to restore the woolly mammoth to the Arctic tundra. The company is based out of Austin, Dallas, and Boston. It has 19 employees. Software operations reside in Austin. Hardware, wetware, and genetic rescue and species restoration departments are in Dallas. And the research lab is in Boston.

“Never before has humanity been able to harness the power of this technology to rebuild ecosystems, heal our Earth and preserve its future through the repopulation of extinct animals,” Lamm, CEO and Co-Founder of Colossal, said in a news release. “In addition to bringing back ancient extinct species like the woolly mammoth, we will be able to leverage our technologies to help preserve critically endangered species that are on the verge of extinction and restore animals where humankind had a hand in their demise.”

The problem is urgent. Up to 1 million: species are threatened with extinction, many within decades, according to a United Nations 2019 report on Nature’s Dangerous Decline ‘Unprecedented’; Species Extinction Rates ‘Accelerating’. As animals disappear, ecosystems can collapse leading to tragic consequences. Colossal is focused on restoring animal populations to protect habitats and create healthier ecosystems.

“Colossal leverages the exponential progress made in technologies for reading and writing DNA and applies it to iconic ecological conservation and carbon sequestration issues,” Colossal Co-Founder Church said in a news release.

Restoring the woolly mammoth will lead to the restoration of the Arctic Tundra, according to Colossal.

“Some researchers have argued that woolly mammoths were ecosystem engineers, maintaining the grasslands by breaking up moss, knocking down trees and providing fertilizer with their droppings,” according to an article in the New York Times on the company’s launch.

Church, who is the Robert Winthrop Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and a Core Faculty member at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University, has pioneered several breakthroughs that have progressed the field of genomics, including CRISPR. 

“A former researcher in Dr. Church’s lab, Eriona Hysolli, will oversee the new company’s efforts to edit elephant DNA, adding genes for mammoth traits like dense hair and thick fat for withstanding cold,” according to the New York Times. “The researchers hope to produce embryos of these mammoth-like elephants in a few years, and ultimately produce entire populations of the animals.”

The elephant-mammoth hybrid will be genetically engineered with traits to help it survive in the Arctic.

“Technologies discovered in pursuit of this grand vision – a living, walking proxy of a woolly mammoth – could create very significant opportunities in conservation and beyond, not least of which include inspiring public interest in STEM, prompting timely discussions in bioethics, and raising awareness of the vital importance of biodiversity,” Church said.

Colossal is backed by $15 million in seed-stage funding led by Thomas Tull with participation from Draper Associates, Animal Capital, At One Ventures, Jazz Ventures, Bold Capital, Global Space Ventures, Climate Capital, Winklevoss Capital, Liquid2 Ventures, Capital Factory, Tony Robbins and First Light Capital.

Lamm will serve as Colossal’s CEO, Andrew Busey will serve as Chief Product Officer, and is also a co-founder. Kent Wakeford is also co-founder and Chief Operating Officer, Brian Beard is co-founder and Chief Legal Officer, and Peter Phillips is co-founder and Chief Business Officer and Head of Biological Sciences Hysolli, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow in the Church Lab from 2015 to 2021.

Colossal has licensed the technology from Harvard to commercialize the research from the Church Lab, in a range of defined fields, excluding use in humans.  

GenXComm, a telecommunications startup spun out of the University of Texas at Austin, announced it has raised $20 million in funding.

Motive Companies led the Series B round with participation from Rain Next-Gen Communications and existing investor BMW iVentures.

The Austin-based company plans to use the funding to accelerate its product development and commercial launch of its private 4G LTE and 5G network solutions.

To date, the company has raised more than $29 million, including $7 million in Series A funding led by Intel Capital. Its other investors include Azure Capital Partners, Bandgap Ventures, Capital Factory, FAM Capital Partners, Lip-Bu Tan, UT Horizon Fund and WS Investment Co.

UT Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Sriram Vishwawath founded GenXComm in 2016 along with Hardik Jain and Stephen Gartside.

The company is solving the problem of wireless networks that can’t handle a lot of traffic. GenXComm’s technology combines radiofrequency and photonics to solve the problems associated with today’s wireless connectivity infrastructure. Its mesh technology network technology breaks through the limits of conventional wireless capabilities, allowing for faster, more reliable, and more affordable networking solutions.

GenXComm’s technology optimizes communication by allowing wireless channels to transmit and receive simultaneously – on the same frequencies.

“Enterprise and Industrial customers worldwide are investing in the digital transformation and full automation of business processes and decision systems,”  Jain, CTO of GenXComm said in a news release. “GenXComm’s 4G LTE and 5G cellular mesh systems will provide the enterprise WAN with the coverage, reliability, agility, and secure connectivity required to make this transformation a reality.”

 “The true advantage of GenXComm is their technology’s ability to significantly reduce costs while increasing the speed of communications and remaining inference-free,” said Robert Istwan, chief executive officer of Motive Companies said in a news release.

“We believe GenXComm’s solutions enable enterprises to own and operate their own private cellular networks,” Chris Donini, Managing Director at Raine said in a news release. “The market for private wireless networks is exploding, and we are excited to partner with a company at the forefront of the innovation required to service Industry 4.0.”

GenXComm’s technology gives companies and organizations the ability to evolve from enterprise Wi-Fi, cabled, or public wireless carrier solutions to their own private cellular network easily and cost-effectively.

Eventus Systems, an Austin-based trade surveillance provider for major digital asset exchanges, announced it has closed on a $30 million round of funding.

Centana Growth Partners led the Series B funding which included participation from DRW VC, CMT Digital, Jump Capital, LiveOak Venture Partners and several new strategic investors.

The company plans to use the funding to hire sales, product and engineering staff and on product development of its flagship Validus platform.

As part of the deal, Centana Partner Ben Cukier has joined the Eventus board of directors.

“Following our investment round early last year, we continued to show strong topline revenue growth, nearly quadrupling our staff across every facet of our business, building our presence in Europe and Asia-Pacific, attracting a wide range of new clients and adding hundreds of new features and enhancements to our Validus platform,” Eventus CEO Travis Schwab said in a news release. “With a strong foothold in all of the major asset classes, we became the leading trade surveillance solution for the major digital asset exchanges globally and expanded our reach into the fixed income and foreign exchange markets.”

“This new investment positions us to achieve our ambitious plans for further growth and penetration into new markets, as well as our never-ending quest for delivering market-leading solutions and support across the capital markets ecosystem,” Schwab said.

Eventus’ customers include Tier 1 banks, brokerages and futures commission merchants, proprietary trading firms, exchanges, corporates and buy-side firms.

 “The past year has demonstrated the increased need for automating and strengthening regulatory compliance,” Matt Alfieri, Principal at Centana Growth Partners, said in a news release. “We’ve been incredibly impressed by the deeply experienced team and efficient, scalable and powerful trade surveillance and market risk system that Eventus has built.  Its clients are truly passionate about the platform and quality of service. As the focus of trade surveillance widens to other asset classes like crypto, Eventus is poised not only to set the standard for compliance and transparency but to further accelerate its growth trajectory.”

To date, Eventus has raised $48.5 million. That includes $10.5 million in Series A funding closed in February of 2020, led by Jump Capital and LiveOak Venture Partners.

Eventus has earned 15 global awards and honors since late 2018 for its technology, innovation and client service, including the Risk Technology Award for Trade Surveillance Product of the Year.

Firefly Aerospace launched its first rocket, Alpha, and then it experienced an “anomaly” and exploded once it reached supersonic speed.

“Alpha experienced an anomaly during the first stage ascent that resulted in the loss of the vehicle,” Firefly posted to Twitter.

The company, which is based in Cedar Park, launched its 95-foot tall Alpha rocket from Vanderburg Air Force Base in California at 6:59 p.m. California time. Everyday Astronaut live-streamed the event on YouTube. The rocket successfully cleared the launchpad and then exploded approximately two minutes into the flight.

“Prior to entering the countdown, the Range cleared the pad and all surrounding areas to minimize risk to Firefly employees, base staff, and the general public,” according to a Firefly post on Twitter.

“While it’s too early to draw conclusions as to the root cause, we will be diligent in our investigation, in partnership with the FAA and the Vanderberg Air Force Base,” according to a statement Firefly issued

Firefly also said while it didn’t reach all of its objectives with the launch, it did achieve a successful first stage ignition, liftoff off the pad,  progression to supersonic speed and it obtained a lot of flight data.

By LAURA LOREK, publisher of Silicon Hills News

It’s a difficult landscape for employers and employees to traverse right now in Austin and throughout Texas as COVID-19 and its delta variant spreads rapidly leading to a surge of infections.

The loss of life and increase in illnesses also have a profound effect on Texas’ economy. The Perryman Group, an economic research firm, issued a report citing a massive resistance among Texas policymakers to require “sensible and basic protective measures, such as appropriate masking requirements and measures to encourage higher vaccination rates” which is costing lives and money.

The Perryman Group estimates that “preventable decreases in output (gross state product) due to the inadequate reaction to COVID-19 total $13.4 billion on an annualized basis. Employment losses were found to reach almost 72,000 jobs.”

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, who recently tested positive for COVID-19, has not required a statewide mask mandate since March 2nd or provided incentives to increase vaccination rates. He also put an end to pandemic federal and state unemployment benefits at the end of June, two months before the rest of the nation. The move was to encourage people to go back to work. But during the last month, Texas has experienced a surge of infections not seen since the height of the pandemic.

To date, Texas has had 3.4 million cases of COVID-19 resulting in 54,863 deaths, according to data compiled by John Hopkins University. Almost 47 percent of the Texas population is vaccinated, which lags behind the rest of the country with an estimated 52 percent of the population fully vaccinated. And Texas is reporting more than 17,000 new COVID-19 cases every day, according to John Hopkins Data. The result has been an increase in hospitalizations and ICU beds at capacity in many metro areas including Austin.

Since last March, a lot of Austin-based technology employers have adopted a hybrid workplace model allowing employees to work from home or in the office.

Those employers, Dell, Google, Facebook, Apple, which all have large campuses in Austin, have extended the work from home arrangements for many workers. Google, which has a large campus in a downtown Austin skyscraper and another finishing up construction, is extending its global voluntary work from home policy through October 18^th, according to a post by Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet. Google also requires anyone coming into work at one of its offices to be fully vaccinated.

Dell is also pulling back plans to reopen on Sept. 7^th because of the recent surge in the COVID-19 delta variant, according to a post by Jeff Clarke, Chief Operating Officer of Dell.

“Sadly, due to the recent surge in the COVID-19 delta variant, several locations previously showing green on our COVID-19 Risk Reference are now red,” Clarke wrote. “We expect this trend to continue for the next several months.”

Apple is delaying plans to require employees to return to the office until January because of the recent rise in COVID-19 cases and the rapid spread of variant viruses, according to a Bloomberg News story, citing an Apple memo sent to employees this week.

But a new study from Robert Half, a national employment agency, released this week, shows work from home arrangements could be short-term and end altogether when the pandemic ceases to be a threat.

In the survey, just 13 percent of Austin’s executives Robert Half surveyed, would allow employees to continue to work from home at the end of the pandemic. Austin ranked last on the list of 28 cities Robert Half surveyed.

Austin, Dallas, and Houston continue to be the most open cities with workers coming back into the office, according to Kastle Systems, a security company that gathers its data from badge swipes on the 2,600 buildings and 41,000 businesses it secures in 47 states.

In its weekly, Back to Work Barometer, Kastle Systems saw declines in office occupancy in nine of the ten cities on its list. And even Austin, Dallas, and Houston dropped below 50 percent occupancy over the past three weeks. The highly infectious delta variant of COVID-19 is to blame, according to Kastle Systems.

“Right now, everything is up in the air,” said Amber Gunst, CEO of the Austin Technology Council. “I know prior to the delta variant taking off many employers were planning a return to work, with flexible options for employees to work remotely when needed.”

“One of the key drivers for companies to bring employees back is the higher level of collaboration which so many tech companies rely upon for innovation,” she said. “Most are waiting to see how next few months turn out before making a final determination for 2022.”

Companies are also grappling with all kinds of issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic like whether to require employees to be vaccinated or to wear masks and to establish other safety protocols like hand sanitizing stations and plexiglass partitions in cubicle settings.

“We don’t mandate that employees have to be vaccinated, it’s a personal choice,” said Laura Woolford, Chief People Officer at AlertMedia.

The Austin-based startup provides emergency communication software, used by over 2,500 enterprise companies in 130 countries to keep employees safe from threats. So worker safety is its number priority, Woolford said.

AlertMedia allows its employees to work remotely. It does require vaccinations for employees who want to come into the office, Woolford said.

“We’ve seen the benefits of people having that flexibility and being remote,” she said. “We’re really enjoying this hybrid model.”

AlertMedia has more than 250 employees today and has doubled in size over the last year. Many of those new employees have been hired and brought on board to the company virtually through Zoom and Slack and other online platforms, Woolford said. She joined the company recently and didn’t meet anyone in person until she moved from Phoenix to Austin, she said.

As the pandemic has continued, AlertMedia has discussed which roles could be permanently remote, Woolford said.

“We recognize some people are better at home,” she said.

The biggest determinate of success for a remote workforce is trusting employees, Woolford said.

“We found people were working even harder from home,” she said. “You find more of that than people slacking off.”

In fact, AlertMedia encourages employees to take time off and recharge, Woolford said.

Some startups like ICON and Eterneva have manufacturing operations that require employees to be on site.

ICON, which builds houses using giant 3-D printers, doesn’t mandate vaccines for its workers at its manufacturing plant in South Austin, but the company does require them to wear masks, said Jason Ballard, its CEO and Co-Founder.

“We’re watching the delta variant very closely,” he said.

Ballard caught a mild case of COVID-19 earlier, but he has recovered without any lingering effects. A few ICON employees have also contracted COVID-19 outside the workplace, he said. But the plant, which makes the 3-D printers, has contained each case and the virus did not spread, he said.

Eterneva, which grows diamonds from cremated ashes, operates a manufacturing facility in Austin. Its manufacturing employees needed to be in the office, but the company allowed its operations team to work remotely, said Adelle Archer, CEO and co-founder.

Eterneva, which has 27 employees, is expanding and Archer hired three of the company’s executives over Zoom interviews. The first week of August, Eterneva held a company retreat and many employees met each other for the first time in real life, she said.

“We likely will go to a hybrid model after the pandemic,” Archer said. “Our employees got a lot of benefit from the flexibility.”

In Austin, 109 companies made the Inc. 5000 2021 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country.

Overall, the Austin companies on the list had a 183 percent median growth rate, $3.9 billion in total revenue, and added 8,312 jobs. The list includes 12 newly founded companies and 62 repeat honorees.

Empowering a Billion Women topped the list of Austin companies and ranked 28th overall. It also made the top ten list of fastest-growing female-run companies with Ingrid Vanderveldt as the founder and CEO.

Empowering a Billion Women, founded in 2013, pivoted last year to launch a healthcare business to supply personal protective equipment and other healthcare supplies to medical professionals and hospitals through an international distribution network. As a result, the company grew more than 10,676 percent over three years.

OJO Labs, founded in 2015, claimed the second spot of fastest-growing Austin-based companies. It ranked 49^th overall and reported a 6,767 percent growth rate over the past three years.

OJO Labs is a fast-growing real estate startup that uses artificial intelligence to help people buy homes.

Literati, another female-founded startup, founded in 2017 by Jessica Ewing, claimed the 77^th spot on the list with a 4,898 percent three-year growth rate. Literati runs a curated subscription book business for adults and children.

Sipsby ranked 79^th on the Inc 5000 list and claimed the fourth spot for Austin-based companies. It is another startup, founded in 2016, run by a woman, Staci Brinkman. The company runs a subscription-based tea company with a 4,754 percent three-year growth rate.

AdOutreach ranked 87^th overall and fifth in Austin with a 4,515 percent three-year growth rate. The advertising and marketing company, founded in 2016, helps businesses run YouTube ads to drive business and sales.

Others in the top 10 list of the Austin-based fastest-growing companies included Sedera, a healthcare startup, that grew 1,241 percent in three years ranking 389 on the Inc. 5000 and sixth on the Austin list. Lab Alley, ranked 396th, grew 1,216 percent, a business products and services company, ranked seventh in Austin followed by Restore Hyper Wellness + Cryotherapy, 426, a healthcare company with a 1,137 percent growth rate. Wursta, an IT management company, claimed the 440 spot with a 1,115 percent growth rate, ranked ninth in Austin. Pushnami, a software company, ranked 554 and claimed the 10^th spot of Austin-based companies with an 869 percent growth rate.

As the grass grows, so does the lawn care industry.

And this week, two lawn care startups combined to create an even bigger company to tackle the problem of keeping lawns tidy.

Austin-based LawnStarter acquired San Diego-based Lawn Love. The financial terms of the cash and stock deal weren’t disclosed.

“The combination of LawnStarter and Lawn Love will further propel growth of the on-demand economy for lawn care and other outdoor services,” LawnStarter co-founder and CEO Steve Corcoran said in a news release. “Joining forces enables LawnStarter and Lawn Love to be even more disruptive together as we continue to revolutionize the outdoor services industry.”

LawnStarter graduated from the Techstars Austin accelerator in 2014. Founded in 2013, LawnStarter has received over $27 million in funding. Investors include Lerer Hippeau, Edison Partners, Bull Creek Capital, Gary Vaynerchuk, Cotter Cunningham, Rony Kahan, and Varsha Rao.

Lawn Love, founded in 2014, graduated from the Y-Combinator Accelerator, has raised$6.7 million in funding. Investors include Bullpen Capital, Y Combinator, Alexis Ohanian, Joe Montana and Barbara Corcoran.

“This deal effectively teleports both Lawn Love and LawnStarter years into the future,” Lawn Love founder and CEO Jeremy Yamaguchi said in a statement. “It’s a dramatic acceleration toward our goal of empowering small business owners by providing the technology and tools to help them grow their businesses, compete with the big guys, and ultimately thrive.”

LawnStarter and Lawn Love will operate as separate brands, led by Corcoran as CEO. LawnStarter’s headquarters will stay in Austin. Yamaguchi is remaining with the combined company. LawnStarter has 329 employees and Lawn Love has 73 employees.

“All full-time Lawn Love employees are staying on board,” Ryan Farley, Co-Founder of LawnStarter wrote in an email response to questions.  “As for future hires, we’re rapidly scaling our product and engineering teams.  We have a leadership hire or two we’ll be announcing later this month.

The combined LawnStarter and Lawn Love company is in the top 120 metropolitan areas in the country, which covers roughly 67 percent of single-family homes in the U.S., Farley said. The company provides a marketplace where consumers can sign up for lawn service and a vetted list of lawn care companies provide the service. The company makes money by taking a percentage of each transaction.

“We’ll definitely keep adding more markets as we get organic demand in those markets,” Farley said. “No plans for international expansion yet.”

The overall lawn care market in the U.S. is valued at $99 billion with roughly $44 billion of that being residential. LawnStarter has a handful of property managers who manage several homes, but 99 percent of its revenue comes from owners and renters, Farley said.

“And that’s our plan,” Farley said. “We want to be a household name that provides value to the end consumer.”