Colossal Founder’s Ben Lamm and George Church Secret New AI Company Astromech Uncovered
Lamm and Church have already raised $30M for the undisclosed company operating under the name Astromech.
Published Aug. 13 2025, 12:00 p.m. ET
A new stealth AI startup with Colossal founders Ben Lamm and George Church at the helm has been uncovered. Little information is available around the stealth AI company from the de-extinction pioneers, but according to financial documents filed on the SEC website, Lamm and Church have already raised $30M for the undisclosed company operating under the name Astromech.
The company was discovered from the filing of a Form D, a key document filed with the SEC which allows new companies to raise funds without the full registration process required for public offerings. The form lists both Lamm and Church as co-founders for the company which sits in the technology sector and is formally registered in the state of Delaware. The filing date was August 12th, 2025.
The de-extinction duo has already raised $30M but any specific investors are unknown.
What Exactly is Astromech?
It’s unclear what the company does and its goals; and if Astromech is an AI company, a robotic company, or a combination of both. Nothing additional can be found on what appears to be their new venture, clearly in stealth mode, but with Church’s involvement, the animated logo found on the website depicting DNA, and the published mission statement, “navigating the code of life,” signs point to some sort of follow up genomics-related AI company.
The name seems to be an homage to astromech droids, a type of repair droid that serves as an automated mechanic on starships in the Star Wars universe. These compact droids, like R2-D2, serve as copilots to control flight and power distribution systems according to Star Wars fandom.
Astromech seems to be in a hard core recruiting phase from its minimal website. Little data can be found on the site, which is in ‘80s style and feels like Tron meets Bladerunner. The site, which only lists Lamm and Church’s names at the very bottom, appears to be dedicated to recruiting AI talent for jobs with titles such as Synthetic Data Generation Lead; Data Smoothing Expert; Vertical AI Trainer; Probabilist Programming Researcher; andDistributor Intelligence Architect - which only raises more eyebrows and speculation.
Ben Lamm and a spokesperson from Colossal had no comment which is very different from Lamm’s typical vocal stance of transparency. From what we can tell, this is the fourth company Lamm and Church have co-founded in the last several years.