Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus and Anduril Industries, and Ben Lamm, founder of Colossal Biosciences, have created Warhound, a company focused on developing and training canine units for military, security and emergency applications. Its stated approach combines Colossal’s genetic-engineering expertise with Anduril’s defense technology, with the aim of reducing reliance on dog breeding in Europe.
Warhound has raised $200 million in a seed round and is valued at $1.2 billion, according to the Financial Times. Neither Luckey nor Lamm will run the company directly. They have appointed David Spirk as chief executive; Spirk is a former U.S. Department of Defense data chief, a former Palantir employee and a Marine Corps veteran.
Luckey founded Oculus after developing a low-cost virtual-reality headset prototype in 2012. A crowdfunding campaign that sought approximately $250,000 raised around $2.4 million, and Facebook acquired the company in 2014 for $2 billion. After leaving Meta in 2016, Luckey co-founded Anduril in 2017 to develop hardware and software for military use.
Lamm founded his first company, Simply Interactive, while studying Finance and Accounting at Baylor University. By the time he launched Colossal Biosciences in 2021, he had created and sold five companies. Colossal works on genetic technologies linked to species revival and conservation, while also commercializing those technologies and creating spin-off companies.
Lamm’s fortune is estimated by Forbes at nearly $6 billion, while Luckey controls a similar fortune. Warhound will bring together their interests in biotechnology and defense, under the leadership of an executive with experience in the U.S. military and defense sector.
Sources: El País Economía.