Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs and arm them with Anduril gear

Warhound raises $200M to engineer war dogs and arm them with Anduril gear

Warhound, the brainchild of Ben Lamm and Palmer Luckey, emerges from stealth to genetically engineer dogs for military and law enforcement. Colossal Biosciences’ Ben Lamm and Andruil’s Palmer Luckey had an idea to genetically engineer war dogs for the U.S. military, law enforcement, and other emergency response teams. That idea, on Thursday, announced its emergence from stealth as Warhound , armed with $200 million in funding from investors including In-Q-Tel, Sequoia, and 8VC. The round values the company at $1.2 billion. These are dogs that perform tasks that are dangerous for humans or difficult for machines, like bomb detection, searches, and other specialized operations. In its launch announcement, the company said that more than 80% of the working dogs used by the U.S. military come from Europe and less than half of them are fit for service. So not only is there a dwindling supply of working dogs for these tasks, but the U.S. has also become increasingly reliant on foreign nations for dogs that play an important role in the U.S. military and in law enforcement. That is key for what Warhound is trying to do. The hope is that Colossal can use its technology to engineer dogs with “characteristics suited to demanding missions,” the company said in a press release. Lamm told TechCrunch he met Luckey about a year ago at a conference, where the Anduril co-founder brought up doin.