Mammoth Biosciences, a gene editing firm co-founded by Nobel laureate, Jennifer Doudna, develops the next generation of diagnostics and therapeutics based on the revolutionary CRISPR technology. On September 9th, the San Francisco-based startup officially attained unicorn status after securing $195 million in Series D financing. Unicorns are privately held startups that have exceeded a valuation of $1 billion or higher via fundraising.

The latest Series D round was led by California investment firm Redmile Group, with participation from Foresite Capital, Senator Investment Group, Sixth Street, Greenspring Associates, Mayfield, Decheng Capital, NFX, and Plum Alley, among others.

Although there are several competitors in the CRISPR space, what gives Mammoth the edge, is its lineup of novel Cas enzymes with numerous advantages over Cas9, the most widely used CRISPR nuclease. It now has an exclusive license to three DNA targeting Cas enzymes, Cas12, Cas14, and Casɸ, and one single-stranded RNA (ssRNA) targeting Cas13 enzyme.