Warhound Emerges With $200 Million to Build a New Class of Working Dogs
A joint venture from Colossal Biosciences and Anduril seeks to engineer dogs for military and law enforcement work, backed by significant venture funding.
By Jabari Long ·
Warhound is a new company focused on building canines for the U.S. military and law enforcement. It was founded by Ben Lamm of Colossal Biosciences and Palmer Luckey of Anduril. The company came out of stealth on Thursday with $200 million in funding. Investors include Sequoia, 8VC, Corner Ventures, and In-Q-Tel. The venture firm In-Q-Tel is backed by the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies. This round values the company at $1.2 billion.
The funding will go toward engineering dogs for dangerous tasks. These include bomb detection and search operations. The company aims to help the military, law enforcement, and emergency responders. Warhound wants to address a supply issue. More than 80% of U.S. military working dogs come from Europe. Less than half of those dogs are fit for service.
The company plans to create dogs with specific traits. Ben Lamm said he wants to enhance health and longevity. He also wants to improve speed, agility, and smell. The goal is to engineer dogs with characteristics suited to demanding missions. This would reduce reliance on foreign nations for working dogs. The supply of qualified dogs is currently dwindling.
Colossal Biosciences will handle the genetics. Lamm and Luckey first met about a year ago at a conference. Luckey noted that more should be done for the military's working dogs. Lamm researched how working dogs are bred. He learned many fail training due to health issues. These issues include poor eyesight, cancer, hip dysplasia, or muscle atrophy. Lamm believes these issues can be reduced.
Warhound’s team studied top-performing working dog breeds. The breeds include the Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd. They are taking cell lines from these dogs. The cells are being stored in a biobank. From there, the team will edit the dogs' genes. They plan to add genes for performance and remove others. The goal is to create a new type of dog.
Anduril will provide hardware and software for the dogs. This includes protection vests and goggles. The gear will help dogs and handlers with situational awareness. Lamm said to imagine vests with data sensors. These sensors would send information to handlers. The data would help handlers understand the situation. He said he believes this will protect the dogs and their handlers. The enhancements will be on the dog, not in the dog.
Colossal is known for de-extinction efforts. It is working to bring back the dodo and the mammoth. The company uses AI for gene cloning. Lamm owns equity in Warhound. Luckey is a partner in the venture but owns no equity. Colossal owns equity and licenses its technology to support the project.
The first batch of dogs is about to be cloned. Births are expected early next year. Service is ideally expected to begin within two years. Viagen, a Colossal-owned company, will clone the dogs. Viagen’s technology has a high cloning success rate. Colossal already uses it for endangered species protection.
Warhound does not know how much to charge for the dogs. It expects to sell to first responders and police. It also plans to sell to the Department of Defense and military groups. Lamm said the company has briefed many government groups. Regarding safety, each dog will be trained like any military working dog. The company is working with the American Humane Society for training certification. The Society said it looks forward to working with them to ensure the animals are treated humanely.
